Painter, Theorist. A pioneer of 20th Century abstract art. Initially inspired by Cubism, he followed its principles to their logical extreme by developing a rigidly geometric style. A typical Mondrian painting shows grids of black lines against a white background, with selected planes filled in with solid primary colors. The surfaces are smooth and there are no signs of brushstrokes. Mondrian called this approach "Neoplasticism" and wrote about it in a 1920 book of the same name. He was a potent influence not only on painting but on the Bauhaus school of architecture and design, and later on commercial illustration. Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan was born in Amersfoort in the Netherlands, and studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Amsterdam. His early works were landscapes in the Post-Impressionist manner. He saw his first Cubist paintings in 1911 and immediately went to Paris, dropping the second "a" in his name en route, and abandoned representational art for good two years later. He lived in Paris from 1919 to 1938 and settled in New York City at the beginning of World War II. From 1933 Mondrian replaced black lines with colored ones and his compositions grew increasingly complex. The work of his last, American phase has a unique energy, culminating in the masterpiece "Broadway Boogie Woogie" (1942), inspired by the bright lights and jazz of his adopted home. He died at 71 of pneumonia.

Painter, Theorist. A pioneer of 20th Century abstract art. Initially inspired by Cubism, he followed its principles to their logical extreme by developing a rigidly geometric style. A typical Mondrian painting shows grids of black lines against a white background, with selected planes filled in with solid primary colors. The surfaces are smooth and there are no signs of brushstrokes. Mondrian called this approach "Neoplasticism" and wrote about it in a 1920 book of the same name. He was a potent influence not only on painting but on the Bauhaus school of architecture and design, and later on commercial illustration. Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan was born in Amersfoort in the Netherlands, and studied at the Academy of Fine Art in Amsterdam. His early works were landscapes in the Post-Impressionist manner. He saw his first Cubist paintings in 1911 and immediately went to Paris, dropping the second "a" in his name en route, and abandoned representational art for good two years later. He lived in Paris from 1919 to 1938 and settled in New York City at the beginning of World War II. From 1933 Mondrian replaced black lines with colored ones and his compositions grew increasingly complex. The work of his last, American phase has a unique energy, culminating in the masterpiece "Broadway Boogie Woogie" (1942), inspired by the bright lights and jazz of his adopted home. He died at 71 of pneumonia.

Bio by: Bobb Edwards