Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian is one of the greatest inventors of abstract art. But before everything started, he was a figurative painter, in love with depicting ... flowers. Almost all of Mondrian's sunflowers, foxtail lilies, magnolias, anemones, and chrysanthemums from this period are somehow detached from their natural environment. In this way, despite a certain level of naturalistic representation, flower paintings such as the present work significantly approaching abstraction.
The meaning of flowers to Mondrian during this period can be linked to his new interest in theosophy, a belief system that recognizes a universal body of truth as the basis of all religions. This spiritual philosophy was popular with artists; painters, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Marsden Hartley, as well as writers, like Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot, were similarly influenced. One year after hearing a series of lectures by the German theosophist Rudolf Steiner in March of 1908, Mondrian became an official member of the Dutch Theosophical Society. In this context, Mondrian's flowers can be linked to the theosophist notion that humans are reincarnated through mineral, plant, and animal forms before reaching their present stage.
The meaning of flowers to Mondrian during this period can be linked to his new interest in theosophy, a belief system that recognizes a universal body of truth as the basis of all religions. This spiritual philosophy was popular with artists; painters, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Marsden Hartley, as well as writers, like Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot, were similarly influenced. One year after hearing a series of lectures by the German theosophist Rudolf Steiner in March of 1908, Mondrian became an official member of the Dutch Theosophical Society. In this context, Mondrian's flowers can be linked to the theosophist notion that humans are reincarnated through mineral, plant, and animal forms before reaching their present stage.
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P.S. Are you surprised by this painting? See 5 more works that you WON'T believe were by Mondrian. :O