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Title details for Mondrian by Nicholas Fox Weber - Wait list

Mondrian

His Life, His Art, His Quest for the Absolute

by Nicholas Fox Weber
Patty Nieman
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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE • The extraordinary and surprising life of Piet Mondrian, whose unprecedented geometric art revolutionized modern painting, architecture, graphic art, fashion design, and more—from acclaimed cultural historian Nicholas Fox Weber
"As fastidiously passionate as his subject's paintings. How wonderful it is to read of Mondrian's gaiety and zest. . . as well as his rigour and unrelenting commitment to his own, absolutely his own, view of art and the world." —John Banville, national bestselling author of The Lock-Up
In the early 1920s, surrounded by the roaring streets of avant-garde Paris, Piet Mondrian began creating what would become some of the most recognizable abstract paintings of the 20th century. With rectangles of primary colors against a dazzling white background, this was geometric abstraction in its purest form. These revolutionary compositions exhilarated, intoxicated, confused, and enraged the international public—and changed the course of modern art forever.
Now, for the first time, Mondrian emerges alongside his thrilling art. Here is the life of an elusive modern master: from his youth in a religious household in the Netherlands where he first began painting Dutch farmhouses and sand dunes, to his move to Paris where he embraced the work of Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat, and Cézanne, to the 1920s and onward where, surviving the turmoil of two world wars and embracing a rapidly shifting culture, Mondrian challenged the concept of art and invented a new world of undiluted colors and rhythmic straight lines. His work would go on to affect painting, architecture, fashion, and design in decades to come.
Here is also an intimate portrait of a complex artist, his solitude and avoidance of intimacy, his eccentricities and his philosophy, his passion for ballroom dancing, and his unwavering belief in art as a vehicle to reveal universal truths.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 22, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593914717
      • File size: 735860 KB
      • Duration: 25:33:01

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Patty Nieman's pleasing voice and steady pace keep this biography of painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) interesting. Nieman provides the right amount of expression and manages Dutch and French names with a convincing accent as Mondrian moves from the Netherlands to Paris and London. Mondrian evolved from painting profitable landscapes, portraits, and flowers to his deceptively simple arrangements of black lines and blocks of primary color that upon closer examination reveal hidden depth through harmony and rhythm. A major theorist and founder of the neoplasticist journal DE STIJL (The Style), he created abstractions that inspired modernist graphic design and architecture. Mondrian's eccentric personality was reflected in other aspects of his life such as the fastidious way he would eat a pear and his odd style of dancing. J.E.S © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from August 19, 2024
      Art historian Weber (Anni & Josef Albers) presents a scrupulously detailed biography of pioneering Dutch abstract painter Piet Mondrian (1872–1944). Raised by austere, religious parents, Mondrian developed an interest in art thanks to an uncle who was a painter. He began dabbling in cubism in 1912, laying the groundwork for a turn toward pure abstraction that evolved into his trademark blocks of bold primary color with black lines in the late 1910s and early 1920s. That style eventually came to be known as neoplasticism, Mondrian’s theory of art that ventured beyond the “guise” of everyday objects into their purer, spiritual essences (Weber posits that Mondrian was so emotionally affected by depicting “the realm of nature and human feeling” that he had to “find a way to express the wonder of existence in a... form that did not threaten him”). Careful due is given to Mondrian’s artistic innovations; the circumstances that made his artistic career possible (including his vast network of patrons, confidantes and supporters); and his unsavory characteristics, including his antisemitism and tendency to break off friendships over small matters. Rigorously researched and impressively nuanced, this will serve as the definitive biography of one of modern art’s most important figures.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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