Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian, was a Dutch painter...
NationalityDutch
ProfessionPainter
Date of Birth7 March 1872
CityAmersfoort, Netherlands
expressed
Through the very culture of representation through form, we have come to see that the abstract - like the mathematical - is actually expressed in and through all things, although not determinately.
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.'
degree express sees
The artist sees the tragic to such a degree that he is compelled to express the non-tragic.
express language name static words
We need words to name and designate things. But we have only a static language with which to express ourselves.
dimension exist expressed oppose positions regard relationship
Everything is expressed through relationship. Colour can exist only through other colours, dimension through other dimensions, position through other positions that oppose them. That is why I regard relationship as the principal thing.
adopt advanced difficult express himself man minds obliged ourselves therefore
The most advanced minds as well as the least advanced are obliged to use the same words. If we adopt new words, it will be even more difficult - if not impossible - to make ourselves understood. The new man must therefore express himself in conventional language.
expression ideas lines
This new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary, it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour.
reality expression discovery
Cubism did not accept the logical consequences of its own discoveries; it was not developing abstraction towards its own goal, the expression of pure reality.
expression opposites two
Vertical and horizontal lines are the expression of two opposing forces; they exist everywhere and dominate everything; their reciprocal action constitutes 'life'. I recognized that the equilibrium of any particular aspect of nature rests on the equivalence of its opposites.
art brings downward helps raise toward universal
The subjectivization of the universal in art brings the universal downward on one hand, while on the other it helps raise the individual toward the universal.
both degrees scale term towards
The spiritual (i.e. the supersensory) has many degrees; thus, the term 'spiritual' is used both for the scale of degrees away from the physical towards the spirit, but also only for the spiritual proper.
art element female further moves natural opposes precisely
As tradition, the female element clings to the old art and opposes anything new - precisely because each new art moves further away from the natural appearance of things.
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.