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Mondrian, the roads towards abstraction
The illustration of one of the crucial moments in the creative development of the Dutch painter, characterised by its various stages but always following the artist’s extraordinary logic, from a debut in figurative painting leading on to the abstract, from the Dutch countryside to New York, with two decisive periods spent in Paris. To successfully do this has been the task of the organisers of the exhibition at the Museo d’Orsay “Mondrian from 1892 to 1914, the roads of abstraction” made up of 110 works which come mainly from the Gemeentemuseum, chosen by curator Joop Joosten. The develpment of the great twentieth century artist, creator of a new language founded on abstraction, places the accent on the work carried out by Mondrian in Paris from 1912 to 1914, a period in which the artist went from figurative cubism to the abstract. Mondrian began to paint under the influence of the school of Barbizon, which at the end of the nineteenth century was considered in Holland to be a model of modern art. He measured his inspiration with various expressive languages, the divisionism inherited from Signac, Fauvism and the Expressionism set down by Munch. In Amsterdam he finally discovered cubism and so decided to leave Holland and go to Paris, where he arrived in the winter of 1911, and became part of a group of cubist painters. With this new language he returned to reintepret work from his figurative period, mostly trees and houses. He quickly abandoned the realist aspect, composing images with horizontal and vertical strokes with decisive colours placed in a two dimensional space. Over a two years period of development, Mondrian came to abstract art, of which he was one of the founding fathers.
27.3.2002-14.6.2002 Mondrian de 1892 à 1914, les chemins de l’abstraction Musée d'Orsay, Paris http://www.musee-orsay.fr/
Piet Mondrian, The fishermen's Departure, circa 1898-1900. Pastel, watercolour and charcoal. (c) 2002 Mondrian/Holtzman Trust//c/o HCR International. Photograph: R.M.N.
Piet Mondrian, Gray Tree, 1911, oil on canvas. Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague
