Piet Mondrian: Born1872 in the Netherlands. Died 1944 in New York.
1892: After a strict Protestant upbringing, Mondrian studied art in Amsterdam,
where he painted local landscapes - windmills, fields and rivers,
with a sensitive and alluring gloom.
1910: Mondrian worked with an eminent bacteriological in Leiden,
the Netherlands, drawing specimens, which had a huge influence
on the development of his work. He became interested in Spirituality,
drawn to the forces beyond perceived reality.
ie Art had a universal beauty beyond realism.
1914: Mondrian moved to Paris, integrating with the Avant-garde…
Picasso. Braque etc. He was immediately drawn to cubism
becoming part of De Stijl Group.
1918: Mondrian contracted the ‘Spanish Flu’ a pandemic which
killed 50-100 million people. He was ill for months… later writing:
“Whilst I had the flu I have noticed how concentrated one unwillingly becomes,
and that the work is the better for it.”
1920’s : Mondrian discovered and admired Noise Music for its
purely abstract sound.
1938: Lived in London to escape the advance of Fascism.
1940 : Left for New York.
Limiting his pallet to Red Yellow and Blue, the grid layout of Manhattan streets was to inspire him until his death.
1944: Mondrian died of pneumonia, perhaps from Pandemic weakened lungs, and is buried at Cypress Hills Chapel.