Mondrian Evolution

With 89 works on display, “Mondrian Evolution” shows Piet Mondrian’s striking development from 19^th-century landscape painter to one of modern art’s leading protagonists, highlighting the diversity of his oeuvre. The exhibition is a rare opportunity to take a fresh look at Mondrian, who not only had a significant influence on 20th century art but also on design, architecture, fashion and pop culture. While the Fondation Beyeler’s collection mainly features works from the later phases of Mondrian’s career, the exhibition will look primarily at the artist’s early work.

Piet Mondrian was initially influenced by late 19^th-century Dutch landscape painting, but Symbolism and Cubism also played a major role in his artistic development. It was only in the early 1920s that he began concentrating on a wholly non-representational pictorial vocabulary consisting solely of rectilinear arrangements of black lines on a white background and the three primary colours blue, red and yellow.