Mondrian: The Art of Destruction

Abstract

This work on Mondrian, one of the great pioneers of abstract art, analyzes the interrelation between his paintings and his theories on art and life as expressed in the public writings and the (largely unpublished) letters. Mondrian's art was not based on reasoning or calculation - on the contrary, intuition was central to his concept of the artistic process - but he always felt a strong urge to position his art in a wider cultural and philosophical context. Crucial to Mondrian's thought was the Theosophical notion of evolution, which required the destruction of the old to make room for the new, in life, in society and in art. This book concentrates on the paintings, the artist's major achievement, examining the influences that shaped his art: Fauvism and Cubism circa 1910, and the work of Bart van der Leck, De Stijl and the Parisian art world during the 1920s. It shows Mondrian not as an isolated figure, but as an artist who took a keen interest in the world around him, a veritable avant-garde painter who saw his role as a creator of a new, modern culture.

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