Square Style! (Piet Mondrian)

Piet Mondrian started out doing paintings that were "representational" which means the painting looks like something in the real world. But over time he started to paint in a different way called "abstraction" which means something doesn't need to look like something the real world. 

Lots of times artists start out painting one way, and over time they start painting different ways. Sometimes they do it because they like trying new things. For Mondrian he had a way of thinking about art where he believed paintings didn't need to look like things in the real world. The way he painted changed to match what he was thinking.

These 2 paintings show how Mondrian started painting. They are of a farm, and a sunflower. When you look at them, you can tell what they are.

 

Small farm on Nistelrode, 1904

 

A painting of a sunflower - 1907

This painting of a a mill starts to show how Mondrian was starting to make his paintings not look like things in real life. 

The Red Mill - 1910

And this one shows how he started using the squares, lines, and only a couple colors in one painting.  

 

Composition in Color A - 1917

Later, Mondrian's style turned into using black lines and the colors red, yellow, and blue. They don't look like anything in real life, but they are still neat to look at. You could even make up a story about them if you wanted to.

 Composition with red, blue, and yellow-1930

Composition 2-1922

 

Composition C - Number 3-with red, yellow, and blue-1935

Composition A -1923

 

 Broadway Boogie Woogie-1943

 

BIOGRAPHY

Piet Mondrian
Born: 07 March 1872; Amersfoort, Netherlands

Died: 01 February 1944; New York, United States

Nationality: Dutch

Self Portrait (1900) and a picture of what Piet Mondrian looked like

• His style was precise, using geometric shapes in mostly the primary colors of yellow, blue, and red   
• It was a style that Mondrian called "neoplasticism" ("nieuwe beelding" in Dutch).
• Mondrian's paintings did not sell very well during his lifetime. 
• Mondrian had his first one-man show when he was 70 years at the Valentin Dudensing Gallery in New York City 
• 1892 - 1897 - Mondrian studied art at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts) where he painted mostly landscapes
• 1912 - He moved to Paris, France, but during World War 1, he moved back to the Netherlands.
• 1917 - Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg started a very influential art magazine called "De Stijl," which means "The Style." 
• 1919 - Mondrian returned to Paris. And he stayed until 1938. 
• 1938 - He moved to London, England, where he painted for 2 years. 
• 1940 - He moved to New York, USA, where he spent the final four years of his life. 
• Mondrian moved to a new studio where he would BIG pieces of paper up on the wall that he'd move around different ways. After he passed away, his friends Harry Holtzman, and Fritz Glarner took pictures and made videos (film at this time) so they could recreate how they were hung up so they could share it with other people at art exhibits all over the world.

ACTIVTIES
Paint a Mondrian Online or Print Coloring Pages

Mondrian Activity Page (probably geared a little more towards 4-6)

Tracing squares and then coloring in with red, blue, and yellow

For the younger set an activity:

• Cut strips of black construction paper to make the "lines" (short, long, medium)
• Cut squares of colored paper (big, small, etc)
• Lay the black strips of paper down to make a grid
• Add colored squares of paper to the grid
• Move them around and see what you come up with! :)

Land Ho! - Outdoor Art from Nature

LAND ART is type of art created in nature, using natural materials like soil, rocks, branches or leaves, and even water. Sometimes they're made to stay around for long time, but sometimes they are made in snow or sand so the don't last as long.

Something that has stayed around a long time are the "Nazca Lines" of Peru. They are giant pictures carved into the ground made a very long time ago (500 BC). They show different animals and people, but no one knows exactly why people made them. One idea is that the carvings were a giant calendar that used the stars to mark time.

Some of these can only be seen from an airplane they are so big. They can be almost 6 miles (9.6 km) wide.

 Nazca Line - Spider

Nazca Line - Monkey

A well known artist named Robert Smithson started making big sculptures out of rocks and other things in nature. He made "Spiral Jetty" in 1970.
It is 1,500 feet (450 m) long, and 6,500 TONs of rocks and earth!

It is in Great Salt Lake in Utah.

Artists can do a lot of different things with what they find in nature. Patterns in the sand or snow, rocks, leaves, flowers, pine cones can all be used to make art.

Tony Plant is an artist from England who walks on the beach with a gardening rake to make beautiful designs in the sand. They only last a couple hours because the tide comes in and washes them away.

This is how Mr. Plant makes his art by walking with a rake to make the designs.

Simon Beck is another artist from England, but he makes designs in the snow in the mountains of France. He maps out the design on the computer. He also uses different markers around him like trees so he knows where to walk in the snow to make the pattern. It can take him between 6 HOURS and 2 DAYS to make one design.  

Detail of the pattern in the snow

Mr. Beck standing near one of his creations.

Michael Grab is an artist who takes rocks and balances them. It almost doesn't look real, but the way they are stacked is what is holding them up. 

This a picture of the artist stacking up rocks to look like a ball on top of another rock. It takes a lot of time to figure out how to place the rocks, but the artist said he really likes it because it makes him think.

  

Kathy Klein makes patterns called "mandalas" out of different materials she finds in nature. "Mandala" means "circle". She uses flower petals, vegetables, and pine cones to to make the patterns.

Link to more pictures of land art in sand, snow, and balancing rocks

This is a "geoglyph" which means it is a picture made out of the earth. This is an eagle made by Andrew Rogers in You Yangs National Park in Victoria, Australia in 2006. It is 328 feet wide (100 meters),  and 1,500 tons of rock!

   
See the Google Earth Map from way up high! 

Richard Shilling is a land art artist who has a great interview on the blog "The Artful Parent" in a 2010 interview. He gives suggestions on how to get kids into making things from the environment around them.

Interview with Richard Shilling about Land Art

Richard Shilling - Land Art for Kids
(book is out of print, but used copies appear to be available)

There are so many wonderful ways to express yourself with materials right outside your front door.There is no wrong way to do it or any age limit, young or old.