Mondrian 1892-1914: The Path to Abstraction

"After several years, my work unconsciously began to deviate more and more from the natural aspects of reality. Experience was my only teacher; I knew little of the modern art movement. When I first saw the work of the Impressionists, van Gogh, van Dongen, and Fauves, I admired it. But I had to seek the true way alone. . . . I forsook natural color for pure color. I had come to feel that the colors of nature cannot be reproduced on canvas. Instinctively, I felt that painting had to find a new way to express the beauty of nature."—Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian is one of the most recognizable artists of the 20th century. His grid paintings, beginning in 1920 (when he was nearly 50) are perhaps the most iconic statement of the modernist aesthetic. But preceding these paintings stands a career of nearly 30 years during which Mondrian evolved from a painter of atmospheric landscapes and embarked on a distinctive path towards abstraction. This book focuses exclusively on the process of Mondrian finding his abstract style, analyzing in depth the disparate influences upon him—aesthetic, historical, intellectual, and spiritual—in the years up to 1914.