Piet Mondrian Quotes

Powerful Piet Mondrian for Daily Growth

About Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian (1875-1944), a Dutch artist and pioneer of Modern Art, was born in Amersfoort, Netherlands as Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan. He began his artistic journey studying engineering at the Technical University in Delft, but soon shifted to the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam to focus on painting. Influenced by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Mondrian experimented with various styles before finding his signature Neo-Plasticism in 1917. This abstract style, characterized by its grid structure, primary colors, and straight lines, sought to distill art to its essential elements. His famous work "Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue" (1930) is a quintessential example of this style. Mondrian's move to Paris in 1912 was instrumental in his artistic development. There he met artists like Theo van Doesburg, Kazimir Malevich, and Vladimir Tatlin who inspired the evolution of his aesthetic ideas. His association with the De Stijl (The Style) group, which he co-founded, further solidified his approach to art. Despite his success in Europe, Mondrian moved to New York City in 1940, where he continued creating until his death in 1944. His works reflect an exploration of harmony and balance, aiming to convey a sense of spirituality and order. Today, Piet Mondrian is recognized as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, whose work continues to inspire contemporary art.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"Art is a balance between nature and the spirit."

Piet Mondrian's quote suggests that art is the harmonious fusion of two fundamental elements: nature, symbolizing the physical world around us, and the spirit, representing our emotional or intangible human experience. In essence, art serves as a bridge between our connection to the natural world and our inner selves, striking a delicate balance between them. This interpretation encourages artists to seek inspiration from both the outside world and their personal feelings, thereby creating works of art that resonate with universal human experiences.


"Art should be independent of all nationality."

This quote by Piet Mondrian underscores the universality and timelessness of art, suggesting that artistic expression transcends geographical and cultural boundaries. It emphasizes that art is a global language that communicates emotions, ideas, and human experiences in a way that transcends national borders. In essence, it suggests that art should be appreciated for its intrinsic value, not tied to any specific nation or culture.


"The purpose of art is to calm and uplift the soul."

Piet Mondrian's quote underscores the profound role that art plays in our lives. He suggests that its primary function is not just to create a visual appeal, but more importantly, to positively impact our emotional well-being by offering tranquility and elevating our spirits. In essence, he emphasizes that the best art should have a soothing and inspiring effect on viewers, promoting inner peace and personal growth.


"Every line I draw should be an expression of my feelings, not a mere technical exercise."

Piet Mondrian's quote emphasizes the emotional significance behind his artistic lines rather than viewing them as mere technicalities or exercises devoid of emotion. Each line he drew served as a personal expression of his feelings, imbuing his abstract compositions with emotional depth and meaning. This perspective underscores the importance of authenticity, personal connection, and emotional resonance in Mondrian's artistic process.


"The artist can only express his time, i.e., the spirit of his time."

Piet Mondrian's quote suggests that an artist's work is a reflection of the prevailing cultural, social, and intellectual climate of their time. Essentially, art serves as a mirror to society, capturing the zeitgeist or spirit of its era. This perspective highlights the significance of artistic expression in preserving historical context, societal values, and human emotions for future generations.


Everything is expressed through relationship. Colour can exist only through other colours, dimension through other dimensions, position through other positions that oppose them. That is why I regard relationship as the principal thing.

- Piet Mondrian

Why, Through, Other, Colour

We need words to name and designate things. But we have only a static language with which to express ourselves.

- Piet Mondrian

Words, Need, Which, Static

I think that the destructive element is too much neglected in art.

- Piet Mondrian

Art, Think, Neglected, Destructive

Dance, theatre, etc. as art, will disappear along with the dominating 'expression' of tragedy and harmony: the movement of life itself will become harmonious.

- Piet Mondrian

Art, Harmony, Expression, Harmonious

I began as a naturalistic painter. Very quickly I felt the urgent need for a more concise form of expression and an economy of means. I never stopped progressing toward abstraction.

- Piet Mondrian

Very, Means, Stopped, Progressing

Just as pure abstract art is not dogmatic, neither is it decorative.

- Piet Mondrian

Art, Dogmatic, Neither, Abstract

Things are beautiful or ugly only in time and space. The new man's vision being liberated from these two factors, all is unified in one unique beauty.

- Piet Mondrian

Beauty, Ugly, New, Time And Space

The rhythm of relations of color and size makes the absolute appear in the relativity of time and space.

- Piet Mondrian

Color, Size, Appear, Time And Space

We must look not to the negative (the misery, the bestial in life), although we undergo it and sympathize with it, but rather to the burgeoning life around us, which is strengthened by the negative.

- Piet Mondrian

Rather, Which, Sympathize, Undergo

The meaning of words has become so blurred by past usage that 'abstract' is identified with 'vague' and 'unreal,' and 'inwardness' with a sort of traditional beatitude... The conception of the word 'plastic' has also been limited by individual interpretations.

- Piet Mondrian

Vague, Individual, Been, Identified

If the paying public demands naturalistic art, then an artist can use his skills to produce such pictures - but these are to be clearly distinguished from the artist's own art.

- Piet Mondrian

Art, Artist, Use, Naturalistic

Reality only appears to us tragical because of the disequilibrium and confusion of its appearances.

- Piet Mondrian

Reality, Only, Appearances, Confusion

The most advanced minds as well as the least advanced are obliged to use the same words. If we adopt new words, it will be even more difficult - if not impossible - to make ourselves understood. The new man must therefore express himself in conventional language.

- Piet Mondrian

Use, Advanced, Obliged, Understood

Only conscious man can mirror the universal: he can consciously become one with the universal and so can consciously transcend the individual.

- Piet Mondrian

Mirror, Only, Individual, Transcend

Non-figurative art is created by establishing a dynamic rhythm of determinate mutual relations which excludes the formation of any particular form.

- Piet Mondrian

Art, Which, Created, Relations

Many appreciate in my former work just what I did not want to express, but which was produced by an incapacity to express what I wanted to express - dynamic movement in equilibrium. But a continuous struggle for this statement brought me nearer. This is what I am attempting in 'Victory Boogie Woogie.'

- Piet Mondrian

Express, Brought, Boogie, Struggle

The clarification of equilibrium through plastic art is of great importance for humanity. It reveals that although human life in time is doomed to disequilibrium, notwithstanding this, it is based on equilibrium. It demonstrates that equilibrium can become more and more living in us.

- Piet Mondrian

Through, Importance, Reveals, Doomed

All that is base in the masses is temporary, no doubt serving only to prevent evolution (that of the elite, as well) from proceeding too quickly and thus not becoming 'reality.'

- Piet Mondrian

Temporary, Becoming, Thus, Base

It has become progressively clearer that the plastic expression of true reality is attained through dynamic movement in equilibrium. Plastic art affirms that equilibrium can only be established through the balance of unequal but equivalent oppositions.

- Piet Mondrian

Art, Through, Established, Attained

Subjectivity ceases to exist only when the mutation-like leap is made from subjectivity to objectivity, from individual existence to universal existence.

- Piet Mondrian

Individual, Subjectivity, Ceases

All individual thought is dissolved in universal thought, as all form is dissolved in the universal plastic means of Abstract-Real painting.

- Piet Mondrian

Plastic, Individual, Means, Dissolved

Intuition enlightens and so links up with pure thought. They together become an intelligence which is not simply of the brain, which does not calculate, but feels and thinks.

- Piet Mondrian

Thought, Feels, Which, Calculate

Through the very culture of representation through form, we have come to see that the abstract - like the mathematical - is actually expressed in and through all things, although not determinately.

- Piet Mondrian

Through, Like, Very, All Things

The natural does not have to be a specific representation. I am now working on a thing which is a reconstruction of a starry sky, yet I make it, nevertheless, without a given in nature.

- Piet Mondrian

Sky, Which, Given, Reconstruction

I do not know how I shall develop, but for the present, I am continuing to work within ordinary, generally known terrain, different only because of a deep substratum, which leads those who are receptive to sense the finer regions.

- Piet Mondrian

Deep, Regions, Receptive, Continuing

As tradition, the female element clings to the old art and opposes anything new - precisely because each new art moves further away from the natural appearance of things.

- Piet Mondrian

Art, New, Away, Element

Experience was my only teacher; I knew little of the modern art movement. When I first saw the works of the Impressionists, van Gogh, van Dongen, and Fauves, I admired it. But I had to seek the true way alone.

- Piet Mondrian

Had, Van Gogh, Works, Impressionist

Whoever says he is starting from a given in nature may be right, and so is he who says he is starting from nothing!

- Piet Mondrian

May, Given, Whoever, Starting

True Boogie-Woogie I conceive as homogeneous in intention with mine in painting: destruction of melody, which is the equivalent of destruction of natural appearance, and construction through the continuous opposition of pure means - dynamic rhythm.

- Piet Mondrian

Through, Mine, Which, Continuous

The artist sees the tragic to such a degree that he is compelled to express the non-tragic.

- Piet Mondrian

Artist, Compelled, Sees, Tragic

If you're searching for quotes on a different topic, feel free to browse our Topics page or explore a diverse collection of quotes from various Authors to find inspiration.