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Abstract Representation

Abstract Representation. Piet Mondrian. Enduring Understanding. Students will understand; abstract explorations brought about new energies and dimensions in artistic creation. Essential Questions. Overarching How has abstraction affected our way of viewing art?

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Abstract Representation

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  1. Abstract Representation Piet Mondrian

  2. Enduring Understanding Students will understand; abstract explorations brought about new energies and dimensions in artistic creation.

  3. Essential Questions Overarching How has abstraction affected our way of viewing art? What can abstraction achieve that realistic art cannot? Topical What relationship does man have with nature? How is it expressed in Mondrian’s art?

  4. 5W1H When 1872 - 1944 How Oil Painting Where Netherlands Piet Mondrian Why Influence Which De Stijl Neo-Plasticism What Geometric Abstraction

  5. Who- Piet Mondrian 1872: Mondrian was born on 7 March, in Amersfoort, Netherlands. 1889: Obtains a teaching diploma in art for primary schools. 1892: Becomes a teacher in the secondary schools and enrolls into the Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam. 1893: Supports himself by making copies of portraits and landscapes at the Rjikmuseum. 1899: Hits by a period of crisis and contemplated becoming a preacher. 1912: Moves to Paris. 1938: Moves from Paris to London because of the encroaching Germans. 1940: Leaves for New York city after the fall of Paris into the Germans’ hands. 1944: Died of pneumonia in New York.

  6. When 1914: World War I. 1929: The Great Depression. 1939: World War II. 1918-30: Jazz Age.

  7. Where Netherlands • He lived in the artistic backwater of Holland which was remote and away from the city. Paris • Post-war Paris saw to a time of intellectual liberation. This is the reason why alternative art was commanding a growing fan base. • The city was the center of art then. America • New York city became the most populous city in the 1920s. • Despite WWII, New York emerged unaffected. The war actually relieved the country from the 1929 depression and fuelled an economic boom. • Jazz was also emerging as popular music at that time. New Yorkers were singing and dancing to the sound of swing.

  8. Which De Stijl- as a Movement • De Stijl is The Style translated into English. • It is also the name of a journal founded by the pioneers of abstract art such as Modrian and Theo van Doesburg. • It is also known as Neo-Plasticism, a name the De Stijl circle eventually came to use. • The abstraction was based on a “strict geometry of horizontals and verticals” (Tate). • It was a style that was also influencing modern architecture and design.

  9. Which De Stijl- as a Movement Interrelation of Volumes, 1919 by Geroges Vantongerloo Sandstone, 22.5 x 13.7 x 13.7 cm Tate Gallery, UK Counter-Composition VI, 1925 by Theo van Doesburg Oil on canvas, 69 x 69.1 cm Tate Gallery, UK Composition, 1918 by Bart van der Leck Oil on canvas, 73.9 x 63.2 cm Tate Gallery, UK

  10. Which Neo-Plasticism- as a Movement • It is a term adopted by Piet Mondrian for his type of abstract painting. • Neo means new and painting and sculpture were considered as plastic art, hence the term means new art. • Mondrian published his lengthy essay entitled Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art, in the first eleven issues of the journal De Stijl, claiming: “As a pure representation of the human mind, art will express itself in an aesthetically purified, that is to say, abstract form”. • Neo-Plasticism rejected the details of appearance. Instead, it implemented abstraction of form and colour- from natural form and colour to the clean straight line and primary palette. • The movement under Mondrian generated art in the most basic and fundamental state- primary colours or non-colours, only squares or rectangles, and straight lines.

  11. What Subject Matter 1872- 1912: • Mostly landscapes, idyllic images of his native Holland. • Windmills, fields and rivers. 1909- 1912: • Nature- the sea and trees. 1914- 1919: • Geometric shapes 1919- 1944: • More geometric shapes and lines. • Lines • Geometric Shapes

  12. What Theme • Mondrian was branded as the father of geometric abstraction. • His truth sprouts from his spiritual and philosophical studies in Theosophy. • To him, perception is not reliable and hence what we perceive with our eyes can be deceiving. • The reality is actually behind the veil of the naturalistic world. That’s the reason for him to abandon all natural forms. • His abstraction journey is the search for the essence of what he sees (his surrounding). • This essence is represented simply by two types of lines- horizontal and vertical lines, primary colour and neutrals like black, gray and white.

  13. What I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness. Nature (or, that which I see) inspires me, puts me, as with any painter, in an emotional state so that an urge comes about to make something, but I want to come as close as possible to the truth and abstract everything from that, until I reach the foundation (still just an external foundation!) of things… I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true." - Mondrian -

  14. What What is Theosophy It consists of religious philosophy and metaphysics. The philosophy embraces that all religions “are attempts” to help “humanity evolve to greater perfection”, and therefore each has their own portion of truth. Its fundamental beliefs- nature does not happen by chance, but everything living or not, is “put together from basic building blocks evolving towards consciousness”. It also believes in universality- all life irregardless of the classification (i.e. humans, animals, vegetables, etc) are involved in an inter-connected single life.

  15. What What is Metaphysics • In Greek, Metá means beyond and physiká means physical or matter. • From the explanation above, metaphysics seeks to answer questions raised about anything beyond matter- things in the world, including the human body. • It’s philosophy investigates the nature of being, existence and reality, and in the case of Einstein- time and space.

  16. What- 1872 - 1909 Landscape with Ditch, c. 1895 Watercolour, 49 x 66 cm Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  17. What- 1872 - 1909 On the Lappenbrink, c. 1899 Gouache, 108 x 86 cm Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  18. What- 1872 - 1909 Woods, 1898/1900 Gouache, 45.5 x 57 cm Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  19. What- 1872 - 1909 Mollen (Mill); Mill in Sunlight, 1908 Oil on canvases, 114 x 87 cm Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  20. What- 1872 - 1909 This is a result of a visit to the Zeeland region of the Dutch east coast. It features a church at Zoutelande. The colours are contrasting- orange red against purplish blue. Together with the monumental façade, it creates a mystic mood. It is also evident in this painting that Mondrian was using the style of the Pointilists. Sun, Church in Zeeland, Zoutelande Church Façade, 1909 Oil on canvases, 118.5 x 90 cm Tate Gallery, UK

  21. What- 1909-12 The Red Tree, c. 1909 Oil on canvas, 37.4 x 39 inches Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  22. What- 1909-12 Gray Tree, 1911 Oil on canvas, 78.5 x 107.5 cm Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  23. What- 1909-12 Apple Tree in Flower by Piet Mondrian, 1912 Oil on canvas, 78 x 106 cm Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  24. From naturalism to stylization to abstraction

  25. What- 1909-12 Trees in Blossom, 1912 Oil on canvas, 65 x 75 cm The Judith Rothschild Foundation, New York

  26. What- 1909-12 Landscape with Trees, 1911/12 Oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  27. What- 1912 - 1914 This is the last of the trees that Mondrian painted. His tree series stemmed from the landscapes that he had been creating over the period of 1909-13. The work shows the influence of Analytic Cubism. The Tree, c.1913 Oil on canvas, 100.2 x 67.2 cm Tate Gallery, UK

  28. What- 1909-12 Still Life with Gingerpot I, 1911-12 Oil on canvas, 65.5 x 75 cm Guggenheim Museum, New York

  29. What- 1909-12 Still Life with Gingerpot II, 1911-12 Oil on canvases, 91.5 x 120 cm Guggenheim Museum, New York

  30. What- 1912 - 1914 Tableau No. 2/Composition No. VII, 1913 Oil on canvas, 104.4 x 113.6 cm Guggenheim Museum, New York

  31. What- 1912 - 1914 Composition 8, 1914 Oil on canvas, 94.4 x 55.6 cm Guggenheim Museum, New York

  32. What- 1914 - 1919 Ocean 5, 1914 Charcoal and gouache on wood-pulp, wove paper glued to Homosote panel, 94.4 x 55.6 cm Guggenheim Museum, New York

  33. What- 1914 - 1919 Composition, 1916 Oil on canvas, 119 x 75.1 cm The Solomon R. Guggebheim Museum, New York

  34. What- 1914 - 1919 Composition Chequerboard, Dark Colours, 1919 Oil on canvas, 84 x 102 cm Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

  35. What- 1919 - 1938 Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue 1921 Oil on canvas, 39 x 35 cm MoMA, New York

  36. What- 1919 - 1938 Lozenge Composition with Red, Black, Blue and Yellow, 1925 Oil on canvas, 77 x 77 cm Private Collection

  37. Lozenge Composition with Red, Black, Blue and Yellow, 1925 By Piet Mondrian. Oil on canvas, 77 x 77 cm Squatri Purma, 1970, 213 x 381 cm. by Anthony Poon. Acrylic on canvas

  38. What- 1919 - 1938 Fox Trot; Lozenge Composition with Three Black Lines , 1929 Oil on canvas, 78.2 x 78.2 cm Yale University Art Gallery,

  39. What- 1919 - 1938 This is the most extreme of his minimalist works. Lozenge with Two Lines and Blue, 1926 Oil on canvas, 61.1 x 61.1 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art

  40. What- 1938 - 1944 Composition No. III Blanc-Jaune , 1935-42 Oil on canvas, 101 x 51 cm Christie’s, New York

  41. What- 1938 - 1944 Composition No. 10, 1939-42 Oil on canvas, 80 x 73 cm Private Collection

  42. What- 1938 - 1944 Place de la Concorde, 1938-43 Oil on canvas, 93.98 x 94.46 cm Dallas Museum of Art, US

  43. What- 1938 - 1944 New York City I, 1941-2 Oil on canvas, 119.3 x 114.2 cm Musée National d'art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

  44. What- 1938 - 1944 New York City II, 1942-44 Oil on canvas, 119 x 115 cm Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany.

  45. What- 1938 - 1944 Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-3 Oil on canvas, 127 x 127 cm MoMA, New York

  46. What- Broadway Boogie Woogie • New York city’s architecture, American jazz, particularly boogie–woogie fascinated Mondrian. • Boogie Woogie is a style of piano-based blues that was very popular in the 1930s & 40s. It is also associated with dancing. • As a skilful dancer, he was able to feel the beat, the disrespectful approach to melody (something new at that time), and the improvisations of boogie woogie. • He liken them to the deconstruction of natural appearance in his painting and reconstruction through a dynamic rhythm of pure oppositions. • Broadway is a huge avenue in New York city with a theatre district. • Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie Woogie is like a cartographical representation of the paths and the streets in the district. • The “staccato” vibration of colors in the painting evokes the syncopate beat of jazz and the blinking electric lights of Broadway.

  47. What- Broadway Boogie Woogie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Broadway_theatres_1920.jpg http://www.umass.edu/rso/guild/broadway.jpg

  48. Why- Inside Influences • Mondrian was introduced to art at a very young age because his father was a drawing teacher. • He was living in the backwater of Holland, away from the city. This explains his early influences- naturalistic and impressionistic styles, away from the alternative experiments in Paris. • In 1911, he visited the exhibition by Georges Braque (another Cubist) and was very impressed with it. The exhibition compelled him to visit Paris. • He returned to Netherlands in 1914 when his father became seriously ill. • When he returned, the war broke out, which forced him to remain in Netherlands for the next five years. • When WWII broke out, it had caused great anxiety and fear within him as observed in his correspondence.

  49. Why- Outside Influences Cubism • Modrian’s works from 1909-1914 were inspired by the 1911 Moderne Kunstkring exhibition of Cubism in Amsterdam. • The form of Cubism in his work is more Analytic Cubism, where nature is treated as basic shapes like cubes, spheres, cylinders and cones. • Works which are obvious with the influence are the Gingerpots and the trees.

  50. Why- Outside Influences Theosophy • In the year 1908, he became increasingly interested in the spiritual and philosophical study of theosophy. • It was a movement started by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 – 1891). She’s a Russian • See under “What” for its fundamental beliefs.

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