Piet Mondrian

Piet Mondrian pioneered abstract painting in early twentieth-century Amsterdam, rejecting figurative realism in favour of pure form and colour. From traditional landscapes, he evolved toward a systematic abstraction, founding De Stijl with Theo van Doesburg in 1917. His vision of "universal beauty" relied on a disciplined vocabulary: primary colours (red, blue, yellow), neutral tones (black, white, grey), and orthogonal lines. In his Compositions, he refined this language, adjusting the balance of coloured rectangles and the weight of dividing lines.