Chagall and Mondrian
Piet Mondrian 1872 - 1944
Mondrian was a Dutch painter and theoretician, regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th Century. He was a pioneer of abstract art as he changed direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, where curved lines disappeared along with all references to nature or objects.Mondrian called the new style Neoplasticism where the artists limited the elements in their painting to straight horizontal and vertical lines, right angles, the 3 primary colours and the 3 achromatic colours ( grey/white/black ).
Marc Chagall 1887 - 1985
Chagall was a Russian born painter, lithographer, etcher and designer. His family were deeply religious Jews. He went to the Imperial School for the Protection of the Fine Arts in St Petersburg. From 1910 - 14 he lived in Paris. He was influenced by Cubism but differed from the movement in his love of fantasy.He returned to Russia and had to stay there during WW1 During WW2 he was a refugee in USA after which he returned to France.An early Modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in many formats including painting, book illustrations, stage sets, ceramics, tapestries and stained glass windows as can be seen in the church at Tudeley near Tonbridge.
We are enjoying our voyage into Modern Art, although at times we struggle to understand it! However, overall we liked the work we looked at, especially Chagall who was very versatile. We liked Mondrian’s earlier work and found him interesting and varied!