Composition C

1914–1918

The artists' colony at Laren

During the war Mondrian stayed at the Laren artists' colony, where he met Bart van der Leck and Theo van Doesburg, both of whom were pursuing their own journeys toward abstraction.

1915–1918

Founding De Stijl with Van Doesburg

With Theo van Doesburg Mondrian founded De Stijl, the journal of the De Stijl group, in which he first published essays defining his theory, which he called Neoplasticism.

1917–1918

The essays “De Nieuwe Beelding in de schilderkunst”

In twelve instalments during 1917 and 1918 Mondrian published “The New Visualisation in Painting”, his first major attempt to set out his artistic theory in writing.

1919–1920

The first grid paintings

From late 1919 Mondrian produced grid-based paintings, and in 1920 the style for which he became renowned began to appear: at first thin grey lines fading towards the edges of the canvas, with the forms filled with primary colours.

1919–1938

Return to Paris

In 1919 Mondrian left the Netherlands for Paris for the second and last time and at once turned to his studio: to hide its flaws he tacked large single-colour placards to the walls, accented by compositions of smaller coloured paper rectangles. From then on, periods of painting alternated with experiments in regrouping the papers on the walls.

1920–1921

The mature manner: thick black lines

In late 1920 and 1921 Mondrian's paintings reached what casual observers take for their definitive form: thick black lines separating larger and fewer forms, more and more of which are left white.