Cubism did not accept the logical consequences of its own discoveries; it was not developing abstraction towards its own goal, the expression of pure reality.
Piet MondrianRead
The emotion of beauty is always obscured by the appearance of the object. Therefore, the object must be eliminated from the picture.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Beauty in art is clouded by physical appearances, which should be disregarded for true appreciation.
Piet Mondrian emphasizes that the beauty we perceive in art is often overshadowed by the tangible features of the object itself. To fully appreciate beauty, one must look beyond the physical form and understand the essence that lies within, suggesting a deeper, more philosophical approach to viewing art.
Themes
BeautyArtPerceptionEssencePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in an art lecture to provoke thought about the nature of beauty.
More from Piet Mondrian
All quotes βI think you too recognize the important relationship between philosophy and art, and it is just this relationship that most painters deny. The great masters do grasp it, unconsciously; but I believe that a painter's conscious spiritual knowledge will have a much greater influence upon his art, and that it would be due only to a weakness in him, or lack of genius, should this spiritual knowledge be harmful to his art.
Piet MondrianRead
Experience was my only teacher; I knew little of the modern art movement. When I first saw the works of the Impressionists, van Gogh, van Dongen, and Fauves, I admired it. But I had to seek the true way alone.
Piet MondrianRead
One can rightly speak of an evolution in plastic art. It is of the greatest importance to note this fact, for it reveals the true way of art - the only path along which we can advance.
Piet MondrianRead
Vertical and horizontal lines are the expression of two opposing forces; they exist everywhere and dominate everything; their reciprocal action constitutes 'life'. I recognized that the equilibrium of any particular aspect of nature rests on the equivalence of its opposites.
Piet MondrianRead
The truly modern artist is aware of abstraction in an emotion of beauty.
Piet MondrianRead
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