Hello fellow art nerds, welcome back to another video. today, i will be drawing piet mondrian
in a cute anime style, while telling you some fun facts you may or may not know about him.
he was born on march 7, 1872, in amersfoort, netherlands. he's best known as one of the key
leaders of the abstract art movement, and you may recognize his simple and iconic paintings
in primary colors. he was a main figure in the dutch abstract art movement, "de stijl" or
"the style." when mondrian was 14 years old, he started to study drawing. his uncle and his
father both guided and taught him what they knew. his uncle attended the hague school of landscape
painters at the time. mondrian was determined to be a painter, but his family insisted
that he should get a degree in teaching first. eventually, mondrian moved to amsterdam. there,
he exhibited his first paintings in 1893. all the while, he still took night classes for drawing,
and would often impress his teachers with his effort and self-regulation. for a long time,
mondrian didn't paint the abstract art that he's known for today. at this point of his life,
he often painted landscapes and still-lives, where his subjects were usually the meadows and polders
around amsterdam. often he used slightly duller colors, and very picture-perfect lighting effects.
in 1903, mondrian visited his friend in belgium and experienced a period of artistic discovery.
his art had changed when he returned to amsterdam in 1905. he would mainly paint the gein river in
amsterdam, which now felt more structured and geometric compared to his previous artwork.
however, his paintings at the time still looked like normal landscapes. in 1907, the quadrennial
exhibition took place in amsterdam, and featured many famous post-impressionist painters.
they were known for using bold and bright colors that didn't look exactly like the ones you'd see
in real life. mondrian was inspired by their use of color, and quickly sketched "red cloud"
as a study the same year. in 1908, his work started to resemble expressionist painters,
and this helped him break free from traditional landscape art.
mondrian was heavily inspired by the luminists -- a group of artists who painted light by using dots
or short lines of primary colors. mondrian did the same, and limited the colors he used to only
primary colors. one of his best artworks that was done with this style was "windmill in sunlight."
in may of that year, mondrian joined the theosophical society, which was a
spiritual group that believed that the spiritual world and the physical world were connected.
mondrian was inspired by this, and created paintings that started to paint less from
life and more from the feeling that objects gave him. this started a trend where he began
to paint more forms than actual objects. in 1910, mondrian's luminous style paintings
were exhibited at the st. lucas exhibition in amsterdam, and attracted a lot of attention.
mondrian was also inspired by the cubist movement -- in 1911, he saw the artwork of pablo picasso
and georges braques for the first time, and was so impressed that he moved to paris in 1912 to study
the style and adapt it into his own paintings. his cubist period lasted from 1912 to 1917,
and his use of geometry would become very influential for his later artwork.
in the summer of 1914, mondrian returned to the netherlands to visit his father
who was seriously ill. however, world war one wouldn't allow him to return to paris,
so he settled in laren and met the philosopher M.H.J. schoenmaekers.
his work on how to interpret lines and how the universe was made inspired mondrian's work.
with schoenmaekers ideas, he started to create a set of rules for his artwork,
and the tipping point for the style he's most known for was created with "composition number 10,
pier and ocean." continuing with this art style, mondrian and three other painters,
theo van doesburg, bart van der leck, and vilmos huszar founded the "de stijl" movement.
the movement was about using the most basic elements possible to draw subjects instead of
actually drawing them, such as using straight lines, primary colors, black, white, and grey.
the ideas for this style were given the name "neoplasticism" by mondrian,
where the artist was meant to guide the viewer about what they felt was a true vision of reality.
at first, mondrian didn't use any lines for his neoplastism work, and instead just painted
rectangles and squares of color on a white canvas. but in 1918, he began to use lines once again,
painting strips of horizontal black lines to separate the blocks of color.
not only were his artworks becoming more abstract, but their names were too.
originally, he would say what was depicted in the title, but moved to simply calling them
compositions. for his 50th birthday, mondrian's friends organized an exhibition of his artwork
throughout the years at the stedelijk museum in amsterdam. they displayed both his current
work and his old traditional landscape paintings, showing his progress as an artist throughout his
life. though mondrian had reached the ultimate abstraction goal, he still continued his work.
he didn't exhibit his work often, and rarely held one-man shows. in 1934, mondrian was encouraged
by american artist ben nicholson to publish his essay "plastic art and pure plastic art." it was
published by "circle," an international company, so mondrian became even more internationally
known. his artwork reached his final phase in the 1940s, where he moved to new york city
and became inspired by the interlocking buildings and city life. he stopped using just black lines,
and began to use colored lines instead. once he grew bored with this, he began to paint smaller
squares and rectangles of color, which made horizontal and vertical lines when put together.
"new york city 1" and "broadway boogie woogie" were two incredibly popular pieces
exhibited in 1943 and 1944. some interpret the yellow dotted lines as the yellow taxi cabs that
were iconic in new york city. mondrian was fond of the neat, rigid architecture, gridlike streets,
and the sound of jazz, which he put into his piece, calling it "dynamic rhythm."
piet mondrian passed away on february 1st, 1944, due to pneumonia. mondrian's extremely abstract
art had a huge impact on the art world, as well as fashion and popular culture. his artwork is still
celebrated to this day in schools and art museums around the globe. if you enjoyed this video, give
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