For the first time, the women in Mondrian's life have been brought together in a well-arranged book. In this way it becomes clear what important role they have played in the life of the artist. How famous would he have been without them?
This year it is 100 years ago that the modern art movement De Stijl was founded. One of the most iconic artists within this movement was Piet Mondrian (1872 – 1944). His recognizable surfaces and lines in primary colors adorn many buildings throughout the Netherlands this year.
So it's not surprising that books about him are coming out this year. Art historians Katjuscha Otte and Ingelies Vermeulen wrote one with an interesting angle, namely the wives of Piet Mondrian. They noticed how many women Mondrian had in his life, sometimes bunches at once, and how prominent the role they played. As lovers, as inspirers and as disseminators of his work. So it is right that a book has now been published about this.
Attract, repel
The authors treat a different woman in each chapter and try to classify them in one of four categories:they are friends, models for the portraits, female artists who worked with Mondrian or collectors of his art. Some were it all. In any case, the book beautifully shows the person behind the artist on the basis of the women in his life. For what better to study a person than through his relations to others?
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Personally, I found the chapters about his loves most interesting because of the almost tangible tragedy. Mondrian had a lot of trouble with love. He never married, although he proposed twice, and his relationships never lasted long. In the many correspondences with different women that have survived, the authors saw a pattern:attract, repel, attract, repel. A man with fear of commitment emerges from this.
Fear of sex
The artist saw women as fragile and pure beings and also fell in love with increasingly younger girls. This idyllic image did not go hand in hand with sex. He initially entered into physical relationships with whores, but stopped because of the justified fear of venereal diseases. In any case, he was very uncomfortable with the physical desires of his girlfriends. These relationships bled to death or transformed into platonic friendships.
Many of these women remained loyal to Mondrian, that is, they cared for him when he was ill or devoted themselves to the dissemination of his art. Why? The authors think they found some kind of mutual recognition. Many of these women would never marry and the gentle and sensitive Mondrian could be charming company. They found homeliness in each other.
Sex in lines
Mondrian was brought up to be a strict religious person and sex represented shame and debauchery. It was purely intended for producing children within a marriage. From the turn of the century, Mondrian became interested in theosophy as a less oppressive counterpart to the orthodox Protestant faith.
Within theosophy the masculine and feminine were important concepts, which could be expressed in colors and lines:the vertical line was the masculine line and also the higher spiritual. Horizontal line symbolized the woman and the earthly material. Crossing the lines created a balance, which Mondriaan also incorporated in paintings.
Young girls
Mondrian said he had nothing to offer women. His whole life was dominated by art and his house was furnished as a studio. At a later age he briefly came back to this and, madly in love, he even made a crib for possible family expansion. The lucky one who proposed to the almost sixty-year-old Mondrian was the 22-year-old Lily Bles. However, at her father's insistence, she rejected the artist.
The tragedy of not being able to enter into a full relationship is reflected in Mondrian's paintings. He has made many portraits, depicting women as pure beings with large, innocent eyes. But as he came to realize that women wanted more than a spiritual relationship, this image changed in his work. Or as the authors beautifully rendered:he painted the woman more and more angular until she had become unrecognizable. Her physical presence disappeared from his work.
Women promote art
In addition to failed loves, there are also many women in the book who have influenced his career. Not every woman to whom an entire chapter is devoted has played a major role in his personal life or has even met. The latter applies, for example, to the American Peggy Guggenheim, who made his work known by organizing an exhibition in America. He also did not know all the women who were impressed by his work and who bought it or collected it for their own collection. Because of the enthusiasm of these women, Mondrian's art became known abroad.
Many of the artists Mondriaan knew came from the artistic network he was part of. But contrary to the zeitgeist, where it was thought that women could not create abstract art, the elder Mondrian encouraged his female colleagues to develop further within modern art. He was an inspiration to many of them. On the other hand, he is also inspired by the work of women.
Context
All in all, an interesting book about an underexposed part of Mondrian's life. For their research, the authors mainly used existing literature and already known correspondence. Yet this book is an addition, because the women from Mondriaan's network are central and not the artist himself.
That can be a – unpleasant? – surprise the reader who expects more Mondrian, but it does place the artist and his success in a new context. Finally a chronological overview that shows the enormous influence of women on the development and fame of the artist. And that at a time when women were not yet taken for granted.