Piet Mondrian. From figuration to abstraction

Piet Mondrian and the evolution of his artistic path – from the tradition of the Dutch landscape to the unique style that made him universally famous – are at the center of the exhibition at MUDEC in Milan.

The exhibition – whose concept is by Benno Tempel, the director of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag – winds through several thematic sections. The leitmotif of the path is the landscape, a theme on which the comparison between the works of the first “figurative” period and those of the “abstract” period opens.

A section of the exhibition will be dedicated to “De Stijl” (or “Neoplasticism”), a movement born in the Netherlands in 1917 on the initiative of Mondrian himself and Theo van Doesburg and still active at the beginning of the 1930s, which innovated art, architecture and design.

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The paintings of Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) are the result of a progressive stylistic evolution that began with Naturalism and Impressionism and continued through Post-Impressionism, Fauves, Symbolism and Cubism.

An important, though lesser known, part of his production is landscape painting: images that depict in particular characteristic aspects of his native Holland. The landscapes are approached by Mondrian with a variety of styles and techniques that show not only the influence of various artistic movements, but also the search for a personal expression.

On display at Mudec are paintings that cover all the phases of Mondrian’s artistic career and that highlight the transition from figurative painting to abstractionism, showing how the Dutch master was one of the most important colorists of his time and one of the major exponents of twentieth-century painting. The exhibition, therefore, invites the visitor to rediscover Mondrian’s masterpieces from a different and unusual perspective.

The exhibition has been realized thanks to the collaboration of the Kunstmuseum Den Haag, holder of the most important collection of Mondrian’s works in the world, which has lent sixty works, chosen among those by Mondrian and other representative artists of the Hague School. Other masterpieces from important museums and private collections are also on display.