Piet Mondrian Quotes
1872 - 1944
 Dutch painter and theoretician (1872 - 1944) 
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More Piet Mondrian Quotes
Masculine and feminime, vertical and horizontal.
Piet Mondrian— Written note beneath a drawing in his sketchbook, 1910/11; Quoted in: Abstract Painting, Michel Seuphor, Dell Publishing Co.,1964, p. 11
I hate everything approaching temperamental inspiration,'sacred fire'and all those attributes of genius which serve only as cloaks for untidy minds.
Piet Mondrian— Quoted in F Elgar Mondrian (1968).
Why should art continue to follow nature when every other field has left nature behind?
Piet Mondrian— Quoted in F Elgar Mondrian (1968).
The surface of things gives enjoyment, their interiority gives life.
Piet Mondrian— Written note in his sketchbook, around 1911; Quoted in: Abstract Painting, Michel Seuphor, Dell Publishing Co.,1964, p. 11
This new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary, it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour.
Piet Mondrian— Natural Reality and Abstract Reality, Piet Mondrian, 1919 : On neo-plasticism
The new plastic idea cannot, therefore, take the form of concrete representation, although the latter does always indicate the universal to a degree, or at least conceal it within. This new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour.
Piet Mondrian— p. 236 (De Stijl, No. 1, Oktober 1917)
Vertical and horizontal lines are the expression of two opposing forces; they exist everywhere and dominate everything; their reciprocal action constitutes ‘life’. I recognized that the equilibrium of any particular aspect of nature rests on the equivalence of its opposites.
Piet Mondrian— Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art, Piet Mondrian, New York: Wittenborn 1945, p. 13; as quoted in Astract Expressionist Painting in America, W.C, Seitz, Cambridge Massachusetts, 1983, p. 55
Art on the contrary sought this harmony in practice (of art itself). More and more in its creations it has given inwardness to that what surrounds us in nature, until, in Neo-Plasticism, nature is no longer dominant. This achievement of balance may prepare the way for the fulfilment of man and signal the end of (what we call) art. (1921/23)
Piet Mondrian— , Michel Seuphor, Dell Publishing Co.,1964, p. 85
Cubism did not accept the logical consequences of its own discoveries; it was not developing abstraction towards its own goal, the expression of pure reality.
Piet Mondrian— Abstract Art, Anna Moszynska, Thames and Hudson, London 1990, p. 50
Observing sea, sky and stars, I sought to indicate their plastic function through a multiplicity of crossing verticals and horizontals. Impressed by the vastness of Nature, I was trying to express its expansion, rest and unity.
Piet Mondrian— Abstract Art, Anna Moszynska, Thames and Hudson, London 1990, p. 50
By the unification of architecture, sculpture and painting a new plastic reality will be created.
Piet Mondrian— Abstract Art, Anna Moszynska, Thames and Hudson, London 1990, p. 117
The unconscious in us warns us that in art we have to followoneparticular path. And if wefollow it, it isnotthe sign of anunconscious act.On the contrary, it showsthat there is in our ordinary consciousness a greater awareness of our unconsciousness.
Piet Mondrian— Quoted in F Elgar Mondrian (1968).
