Mondrian: His Life, His Art, His Quest for the Absolute (Hardcover)

Description

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The extraordinary and surprising life of Piet Mondrian, whose unprecedented geometric art revolutionized modern painting, architecture, graphic art, fashion design, and more—from acclaimed cultural historian Nicholas Fox Weber

"As fastidiously passionate as his subject's paintings. How wonderful it is to read of Mondrian's gaiety and zest. . . as well as his rigour and unrelenting commitment to his own, absolutely his own, view of art and the world." —John Banville, national bestselling author of The Lock-Up

In the early 1920s, surrounded by the roaring streets of avant-garde Paris, Piet Mondrian began creating what would become some of the most recognizable abstract paintings of the 20th century. With rectangles of primary colors against a dazzling white background, this was geometric abstraction in its purest form. These revolutionary compositions exhilarated, intoxicated, confused, and enraged the international public—and changed the course of modern art forever.

Now, for the first time, Mondrian emerges alongside his thrilling art. Here is the life of an elusive modern master: from his youth in a religious household in the Netherlands where he first began painting Dutch farmhouses and sand dunes, to his move to Paris where he embraced the work of Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat, and Cézanne, to the 1920s and onward where, surviving the turmoil of two world wars and embracing a rapidly shifting culture, Mondrian challenged the concept of art and invented a new world of undiluted colors and rhythmic straight lines. His work would go on to affect painting, architecture, fashion, and design in decades to come.

Here is also an intimate portrait of a complex artist, his solitude and avoidance of intimacy, his eccentricities and his philosophy, his passion for ballroom dancing, and his unwavering belief in art as a vehicle to reveal universal truths.

About the Author

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NICHOLAS FOX WEBER has been the executive director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation for over four decades. He is the author of fifteen books, including iBauhaus, Le Corbusier, Balthus: A Biography, and Patron Saints. He lives in Connecticut, Paris, and Ireland.

Praise For…

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"This book will be a treasure-chest for art historians. Mr. Weber is a brisk and entertaining narrator . . . . The author’s comprehensive command of material, his subtle pictorial insight and his ability to bring any given canvas to energetic life, [are] a gift particularly valuable considering how very few Mondrian canvases are currently accessible to the general public.” —​Hilary Spurling, The Wall Street Journal

"Nicholas Fox Weber's biography of Piet Mondrian is as fastidiously passionate as his subject's paintings. How wonderful it is to read of Mondrian's gaiety and zest - he was a passionate dancer: who'd have thought? - as well as his rigour and unrelenting commitment to his own, absolutely his own, view of art and the world." —John Banville, national bestselling author of The Lock-Up

"In Mondrian, the monk of modernism finally gets the flesh-and-blood portrait he deserves. The lifelong “quest for the absolute” does not shelter Mondrian from the temptations of love, the rewards and difficulties of friendship, or the profoundly playful spirit of jazz. Instead they enrich his art. This monk can dance." —Mark Stevens, Pulitzer Prize-winning coauthor of de Kooning: An American Master

"[Weber] tracks the artist’s story with care and precision, debunking several longstanding myths about Mondrian along the way. . . It seems certain to become the standard biography of the artist for years to come." —Charles Finch, The Boston Globe

"Truly outstanding . . . [the] definitive book about Mondrian’s fascinating life, arts and quest. There have been many books about the man but this one is truly unique, Nicholas unearths many facts and details that Mondrian lovers like myself have never read before!" —Sir Paul Smith

★ "Scrupulously detailed . . . rigorously researched and impressively nuanced . . .the definitive biography of one of modern art’s most important figures." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

★ “Twelve years in the making and brimming with exacting details and striking insights, Weber’s vital and enlightening portrait will be the foundation for all future studies of the ‘jazz-loving pioneer of abstraction.’” — Donna Seaman, Booklist (starred review)

"In this exceptionally well-crafted and researched biography, cultural historian Weber explores the intimate connection between Mondrian’s austere yet exuberant paintings and his life. . . . Written with a scholarly precision that revels in the nuances of Mondrian’s remarkable life and work, Weber’s book offers an immersive, if lengthy, biographical experience for lovers of both art history and modernism." —Kirkus Reviews