Blog #4 - Piet Mondrian

In the eyes of history, Piet Mondrian’s background begins in a way similar to many people in history. Reared in a family of artists, his father dreamed of having him become a drawing teacher, but he wanted to be a painter. As usual, this caused some skirmishes with both father and son, but the latter’s stubbornness would win the round. Growing up in Holland, he would eventually make his way to the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, making ends meet doing what real artists did, but it would be clear that he did not fit into the crowd of typical artists.

Also typical of many people of his time was his reaction to his strict Calvinist background. Although, typically, most people react to the downtrodden view on the sinfulness of humanity, it seemed that his reaction had to do with not fitting into the typical Christian view of a transcendent universe – a religion in which God is viewed as being a separate entity, creating the universe out of complete nothingness. His ideas seemed to fit more closely to that of the Eastern Religions – a religion that view the universe as essentially God, meaning that all creation is essentially divine as a result. He called this idea as the “divine absolute,” which lies in all humans and is projected by humans into everything. As a result, he thought that it was his job to “paint the divine in itself … as he found it within him, without reference to any single object” (Seuphor 51). Eventually, his eastern ideas would solidify when he joined the Theosophical Society, a religion heavily influenced by eastern ideas – especially Buddhism. Eventually, the distinction between religion and art became less evident, and he would soon come to believe that religion and art were of the same essence.

My own personal observation as to why Mondrian would be lead into the art of abstraction comes from the fact that he was atypical in both the realms of art and religion. As a result, it becomes easy to see how the two become merged into one, especially since his religious ideas focused on an immanent rather than transcendent reality. My interest in Mondrian is purely based in the merger of these two fields on account of the fact that I am a religion major at Otterbein (“the few, the proud, the religion majors…”). Since the Eastern Religions focus on an impersonal Ultimate Reality – which is similar to saying that God is impersonal – it is no wonder that his work seems to become more abstract. It makes me wonder if his religious beliefs would directly lead him to the work of abstraction, but it could just be my bias getting the best of me.

                                        
                                                  "Apple Tree in Blossom" (1912)                                      

                                                               "Tree"  (1993)

                                                "Evening Landscape"  (c. 1904)

                                             "Farmyard at Nistelrode"  (c. 1904)

                                              "Landscape near Amsterdam" (c. 1902)

Works Cited:

Seuphor, Michel, Piet Mondrian: Life and Work (New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1957).

Harrison, Charles, Francis Frascina, Gill Perry, Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction: The Early Twentieth Century (London, England: Yale University Press, 1993).