Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (1872-1944), of Dutch origin and a visionary of 20th-century art, stood out for his crucial role in the founding and development of neoplasticism, a movement that sought to express universal essence through abstraction. Initially inspired by cubism, which broke with the traditional representation of nature, Mondrian took abstraction to a deeper level, focusing his work on straight lines and a palette limited to primary colors.
His collaboration and dialogue with Theo van Doesburg, founder of De Stijl, were instrumental in the evolution of his ideas; however, they diverged in their approaches when Van Doesburg introduced the diagonal in his series of studies in 1917 that culminated in "Composition VIII (The Cow)", marking a break with Mondrian's rectilinear orthodoxy. For his part, he remained faithful to horizontality and verticality, believing that these lines reflected the universal order, a philosophy that permeated all his work and left a lasting impact on contemporary art and design.
In Piet Mondrian, one of the most emblematic figures of neoplasticism, it can be observed, through the study of his works, how this new artistic movement transformed for him into a path of spiritual purism, where Calvinist influences resonate strongly, as well as those of the organization of Masonic and Orientalist inspiration, Calvinism, as well as those of the Masonic and Orientalist-inspired organization, Theosophical Society.
His Calvinist upbringing instilled in him an appreciation for order, simplicity, and disinterest in all things tangible or perishable, values that are clearly reflected in his work characterized by an economy of color and a rigorous geometric structure. Mondrian joined the eclectic Theosophical Society in 1909, whose teachings on the primacy of the spiritual over the material and the Gnostic vision of human existence and life profoundly influenced his artistic approach and fit quite well with his religious influence.
In his paintings, Mondrian aspired to strip art of all naturalistic and anecdotal form, seeking to represent the underlying and essential structure of the cosmos, which for him was fundamentally spiritual. With this philosophy, material reality for him is merely an illusion or a "dress" that hides the true spiritual essence of the universe. For Piet, the elimination of form and the focus on the intersection of lines and pure colors were not simply a new aesthetic; they were part of a method to ascend beyond the physical and touch the divine, an echo of the Theosophical doctrine where true enlightenment comes only from understanding the spiritual and knowledge, to the detriment of the mortal.
Neoplasticism thus becomes a visual manifestation of principles, where the essential is everything and the incidental is discarded. In this integration of art and philosophy, not only was a redefinition of the purpose of visual art proposed, but also a path for spiritual transcendence, suggesting that through the purification of our aesthetic perception, we can come closer to the absolute, the eternal, and the truly real.
