Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian, was a Dutch painter...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth7 March 1872
CityAmersfoort, Netherlands
achieved balance bring cannot cause changes eternal explain follow happiness loss negative positive states time
The positive and negative states of being bring about action. They cause the loss of balance and of happiness. They cause the eternal revolutions - the changes that follow one upon the other. They explain why happiness cannot be achieved in time.
art attained clearer dynamic equivalent expression movement plastic true unequal
It has become progressively clearer that the plastic expression of true reality is attained through dynamic movement in equilibrium. Plastic art affirms that equilibrium can only be established through the balance of unequal but equivalent oppositions.
appreciate attempting brought continuous dynamic express former incapacity movement produced statement work
Many appreciate in my former work just what I did not want to express, but which was produced by an incapacity to express what I wanted to express - dynamic movement in equilibrium. But a continuous struggle for this statement brought me nearer. This is what I am attempting in 'Victory Boogie Woogie.'
although bestial life sympathize undergo
We must look not to the negative (the misery, the bestial in life), although we undergo it and sympathize with it, but rather to the burgeoning life around us, which is strengthened by the negative.
admired art experience knew modern saw seek teacher true van works
Experience was my only teacher; I knew little of the modern art movement. When I first saw the works of the Impressionists, van Gogh, van Dongen, and Fauves, I admired it. But I had to seek the true way alone.
along art disappear dominating itself life movement tragedy
Dance, theatre, etc. as art, will disappear along with the dominating 'expression' of tragedy and harmony: the movement of life itself will become harmonious.
base becoming masses prevent quickly serving thus
All that is base in the masses is temporary, no doubt serving only to prevent evolution (that of the elite, as well) from proceeding too quickly and thus not becoming 'reality.'
given nature whoever
Whoever says he is starting from a given in nature may be right, and so is he who says he is starting from nothing!
Reality only appears to us tragical because of the disequilibrium and confusion of its appearances.
art created mutual particular relations
Non-figurative art is created by establishing a dynamic rhythm of determinate mutual relations which excludes the formation of any particular form.
It is not important to make many pictures but that I have one picture right.
closer inner turning
By turning from the surface, one comes closer to the inner laws of matter, which are also the laws of the Spirit.
dissolved form means plastic universal
All individual thought is dissolved in universal thought, as all form is dissolved in the universal plastic means of Abstract-Real painting.
degree express sees
The artist sees the tragic to such a degree that he is compelled to express the non-tragic.