Olga's Gallery

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) was a Dutch Abstract painter of the first half of the 20th Century. A contemporary and disciple of the famous cubists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Mondrian challenged the definition of art itself, working with simple lines, right angles, correct geometric figures and pure, primary colors. His work attained a level of abstraction far beyond that of even his most progressive colleagues.

The painter was born Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, in 1872, in Amersfoort, a small town in central Holland. Though once prosperous, by the end of the 19th Century, most of the population lived in relative property, and the town was a bastion of religious fanaticism. Mondrian's father, head teacher at the local primary school was a devout Protestant, and often neglected his family in favor of service to the church and charity. Read Piet Mondrian's Full Biography