Straight lines, primary colours: Dutchman Piet Mondrian's abstract works of art are famous all around the world. The largest collection of his work is housed in the Municipal Museum in the Hague. Now the museum has a permanent exhibition on Mondrian and other representatives of the Dutch artistic movement De Stijl.

The works of the young Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) are very classical. Looking at his early portraits and landscapes, you would never have guessed that he was to become one of the greatest artistic innovators of the 20th century.

From 1917, Mondrian’s works became abstract. He didn’t work on his own, but was part of the Dutch artistic movement De Stijl. His close colleagues were artists such as Theo van Doesburg and Bart van der Leck. They all experimented with bright colours and images that were becoming increasingly abstract. Architect Gerrit Rietveld even worked in three dimensions. De Stijl is considered the Netherlands’ most important contribution to modern art.

Victory Boogie Woogie
After several years, Mondrian decided to go his own way again. In Paris – at that time, the European centre of modern art – he developed his own personal style. He also wrote about how art, design and architecture were to go hand in hand in the modern era. Even the design of his own studio was a Mondrian masterpiece.

In 1940, after the outbreak of the Second World War, Mondrian fled to the inspiring and dynamic city of New York. The pièce de résistence of the exhibition in The Hague is the equally dynamic painting Victory Boogie Woogie, which was still unfinished at the time of Mondrian’s death in 1944.

(hs/ae)