Piet Mondrain

In the year 1872, Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan was born at the Kortegracht in Amersfoort. The man who was later called Piet Mondrian, is best known for his stark modern compositions featuring black lines and blocks of primary colors. However, this Dutch painter actually began his artistic career as a landscape artist. The move Mondrian made away from realistic ideals towards Cubist beliefs placed him among the most highly influential artists of all time.

In the beginning ... Mondrian painted the fields, farms and canals around Amsterdam and his works at this time reveal a great love of trees and nature. This can be seen in the 1910 watercolor painting in which delicately painted flowers are beautifully arranged on the paper. Another painting, "Avond; Red Tree" of 1908 is a realistically executed tree - correct in all senses of the word.

Mondrian then began to move toward a more linear style, seen in the 1911 painting "Gray Tree." Here, the form of a tree is evident, but the viewer is required to work just a little harder in order to see the branches through the many planes and abstract slices of paint.

In 1915, the Dutch Magazine was established. It was then that Mondrian could be found spending his time painting canvases where the colors were applied in patches and the horizontal and vertical lines became absolutely straight. Although these paintings were not readily accepted by the public, Mondrian did not abandon. He was one to always stick firmly to his beliefs and was not above saying things like, "The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel."

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