Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian was born in Amersfoort in the Netherlands. His father was a theological scholar. Piet Mondrian was under the influence of his father. In 1892, Mondrian entered the Academy for Fine art in Amsterdam. He worked as a teacher. He tried to flee repression of his father. He went deeply into theosophy. Theosophy way of seeing the world influenced his art deeply.

Early works of Mondrian were unspectacular. He painted landscape paintings. Later, in 1908, he stayed in artists's colony. He knew Jan Toorop who was Javanese Dutch painter and Symbolist painter. Mondrian tried to portray absolutes.

Mondrian's later works were influenced by the 1911 Moderne Kunstking exhibition of Cubism in Amsterdam. He decided to move to Paris. In Paris, he began to pursue geometric lines. He tried to break up space with geometric configuration. His still-life paintings drawn at this time were simplified. He drew the essence of object.

Philosophy in Mondrian's works is difficult, but his style is very simple. His composition resembled chessboard.