Art: Horizontal Tree

Horizontal Tree
Piet Mondrian
1912

A series of increasingly Cubist tree paintings marked Dutch artist Piet Mondrian’s transition from representational and Impressionistic art to the Neoplastic geometries of white, gray and primary colors framed in horizontal and vertical black lines for which he is best known.

 
These later paintings—created in pursuit of a harmonious universal beauty told through a simplified visual vocabulary—were the culmination of the geometric-abstraction De Stijl (The Style) movement he co-founded in 1917.

 
And while these colorful, geometric masterpieces are icons of abstract art and continue to be powerful influences over architecture, graphic design and fashion, I find his tree paintings to be far more thoughtful, evocative, disciplined and noble.