Havenyou ever looked at a piece of art and asked yourself, “Why is THISnart?”
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n Inbet some people have looked at Piet Mondrian’s paintings of lines andncolor, rectangles and squares, and asked themselves that verynquestion. It’s hard to explain exactly what art is, but one thing Inthink I can safely say is that if a maker says that the thing he or she made is art,nit’s art.
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nThatndoesn’t mean it’s good. Itndoesn’t mean it’s popular. Itndoesn’t mean people will want to spend ten cents on it, let alone tennthousand dollars. Itndoesn’t mean that a gallery or museum will display it……butnit still counts as art, I think, if the maker intended it to be art.
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Well,ntoday’s birthday boy created paintings that ARE good. And popular.n
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nTheynhave sold for up to 40 million dollars!
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nTheynhang in museums and galleries all over the world.
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nMondrian’snpaintings most definitely are art!
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nThenguy could paint realistically, too…
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nLikenmost modern artists, Mondrian (who was born in the Netherlands onnthis date in 1872) could make representational art very well. His treesnlooked like trees, his windmills looked like windmills, and you couldnrecognize piers and beaches, rivers and fields in his paintings.
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This tree shows Mondrian’s
experimentation with cubism,
on his way to his own distinct
style… |
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nHowever,ncubism and Bart van der Leck’s primary-colored paintings influencednMondrian. He began to try to express the beauties of nature throughnabstraction. He thought that the proportion and composition of eachnpainting—the placement of the lines and shapes, and their relativensize to one another—spoke of beauty itself rather than of a beautifulntree, a beautiful waterfall, or a beautiful something.
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nMondriannand van der Leck founded an art movement called De Stijl (thenstyle).
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nMondrian’snlast studio…
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nMondrianngrew up in the Netherlands, went to Paris when he was 40 years old,nand after some back-and-forth between the two nations, finally wentnto London and then the United States to escape Hitler’s Nazis. n
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nMondrian’snlast studio was in Manhattan, New York. He painted the walls andnfurniture of his studio off-white—the same color that was the basencolor he used in his paintings—and he painted the top of his metalnstool a bright, glossy red. He also painted the cover of hisnphonograph (record player) the same red color. Finally, he had brightncolored papers that he tacked and retacked to the walls innever-changing compositions. Mondrian and visitors found the studionenergizing and restful, at the same time!
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By the Way…n
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Have you heard of the latest art-in-public-places fad? It’s called LEGO-bombing, and it reminds of a bit of Mondrian’s wonderful art…Check it out!n
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Celebrate by creating Mondrian-style art yourself!n
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Create a piece by hand, using sharpies and colored markers and a ruler or T-square…or use a computer drawing program. Or you could create a piece using a paper cutter and colored paper. Try more than one method, and compare…n
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Be inspired to further experiment by looking at this Pinterest board. n
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nAlsonon this date:
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Evolutionnof Games Day – Baseball and Monopoly Editionn
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nScientistnStanley Miller’s birthday
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Evolutionnof Games Day – Baseball and Monopoly Edition
