Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was a Dutch artist. Born in 1872. , he died in New York City in 1944. He is generally known for his early contributions to abstract art but his beginnings were very much in natural, figurative work

He painted a farm near Duivendrecht  at least twenty times. Above you can see it  in pale winter light perhaps at the end of the day though it might be early morning. I find the patterns of interlocking branches in the trees not only appealing but they seem to herald some of the abstract work that was to follow in the 1920's. This particular scene evidences Modrian's keen awareness of subtle nuances in  light and shadow. It was painted in 1916 in the middle of World War One.

There is a quiet stillness about the canvas and I think you sense that the artist is less interested in creating a representational image of the farm than in observing how the different elements connect with each other. Colouring is as subdued as the ethereal lighting.

Modrian in New York in 1942

In 1911, Modrian had visited an early Cubist exhibition of paintings by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and this led to much experimentation as he began to embrace modernism, leaving his comfort zone far behind. He once said this of his later work - "Every true artist has been inspired more by the beauty of lines and color and the relationships between them than by the concrete subject of the picture."

Below is Modrian's "Die Ideale" which is housed in the municipal art gallery of Den Haag in The Netherlands. I am not sure when exactly it was painted but he created many canvases like this and it is  perhaps typical of his later work - like a trademark style. Simple lines, boxes and blocks of colour creating a mysterious, stripped down beauty.

from Yorkshire Pudding https://ift.tt/YjRoQEO