Mondrian: His Life, His Art, His Quest for the Absolute

by Nicholas Fox Weber

The extraordinary and surprising life of Piet Mondrian, whose unprecedented geometric art revolutionized modern painting, architecture, graphic art, fashion design, and more—from acclaimed cultural historian Nicholas Fox WeberIn the early 1920s, surrounded by the roaring streets of avant-garde Paris, Piet Mondrian began creating what would become some of the most recognizable abstract paintings of the 20th century. With rectangles of primary colors against a dazzling white background, this was geometric abstraction in its purest form. These revolutionary compositions exhilarated, intoxicated, confused, and enraged the international public—and changed the course of modern art forever.Now, for the first time, Mondrian emerges alongside his thrilling art. Here is the life of an elusive modern from his youth in a religious household in the Netherlands where he first began painting Dutch farmhouses and sand dunes, to his move to Paris where he embraced the work of Pablo Picasso, Georges Seurat, and Cézanne, to the 1920s and onward where, surviving the turmoil of two world wars and embracing a rapidly shifting culture, Mondrian challenged the concept of art and invented a new world of undiluted colors and rhythmic straight lines. His work would go on to affect painting, architecture, fashion, and design in decades to come.Here is also an intimate portrait of a complex artist, his solitude and avoidance of intimacy, his eccentricities and his philosophy, his passion for ballroom dancing, and his unwavering belief in art as a vehicle to reveal universal truths.

Genres: Art, Biography, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir

656 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2024

About the author

Nicholas Fox Weber is a cultural historian and Executive Director of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation. He has written extensively about both Josef and Anni Albers and curated many major exhibitions and retrospectives dedicated to their work. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Yale University and author of fourteen books including Patron Saints, The Art of Babar, The Drawings of Josef Albers, The Clarks of Cooperstown, Balthus, Le Corbusier: A Life, and The Bauhaus Group.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Piet Mondrian's art ever since seeing some of his amazing work at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam 10 years ago. I was so impressed at how he first painted windmills and landscapes, especially trees, in Monet's Impressionistic fashion, but he later was influenced by Georges Seurat, Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh. I just found it fascinating how his work gradually incorporated more Cubism, Pointillism and modernism, focusing on more abstract and linear techniques. His abstract/modernist view was to show the underlying basis of basic things, later developing into the famous lines and primary color palettes for which is he most famous. Mondrian also was a prolific writer and very witty. Like me, I think he was an outgoing introvert (yes, I know that may seem like an oxymoron). Rene Magritte is my favorite artist, but I definitely appreciate Mondrian's style.

"Mondrian: His Life, His Art, and the Quest of the Absolute," is a very thorough and detailed biography, from his childhood all the way to his move to New York City, where he finally found his greatest success. I think Nicholas Fox Weber did excellent research and made thoughtful observations. This paragraph, in particular, I think really summed up Mondrian's outlook:

"Mondrian's life, more than most people's, was based on repetition with variation: in his painting, his writing, the place he lived, the meals he ate. The underlying constant was his rock-solid foundation of appreciation for what he had."

The reason I only gave four stars to Weber's book is because it reads more like a textbook than a biography aimed at a mass audience. Since I received an ARC of the book, perhaps that is the intention. I don't know. My favorite section was the last part of the book, in which Mondrian's benefactor and friend, Harry Holtzman, helped Mondrian move to the U.S., paid for his room and board and helped him eventually get U.S. citizenship. Interestingly, Holtzman, also an artist, had a similar style to Mondrian's -- perhaps that was from Mondrian's influence?

Weber's book has few photos, and none of the artist's work -- I would have liked photos of some of his paintings included (perhaps because of copyright infringement?), especially to show context alongside the text. The book had over 10,000 pages on my Kindle app, so yes, it was a large amount of copy to read. Most of the book was interesting, but I think the reader must have an appreciation for the artist and his work -- or at least be interested in learning about him -- to fully enjoy it.

Thanks to Knopf Books and NetGalley for providing me with the ARC to review this book.

[Doug Garrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long, but very interesting. Skimmed it.

[Corbin Hillam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no idea how complex his art was.

[Shanereads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mondrian was a wonderful read.

If you love art history books, this is a great pick. Mondrian and his art are described with great detail.

Booksellers this would be a great hand sell for readers who enjoy books like The Lady in Gold.

This finished copy was provided by the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review. Huge thanks to Knopf for my review copy!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advance copy of this work that looks at the life, art and influences of one of the great artists of the 20th century.

Growing up my family was not that interested in art. Our walls had more family photos and knitted works that my mother had created, rather than paintings or drawings. My brother and I loved cartoons, cartoonists, and comic books. Old Masters were more Jack Kirby and Bill Everett, if I thought about it. My aunt on the other hand constantly visited museums and galleries, had works on her wall that made one question her sanity, and a library of art books that I would flip through, but not pay much attention too. That changed when I read of all things a mystery by Lawrence Block, part of his Bernie Rhodenbarr series, The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian. The book was full of information and asides about art, and being one who hated not understanding things, I asked my aunt who was this guy, and why was his art so important. My aunt had probably been waiting for this moment all her life, and proceed to school me in what she knew. As a person always interested in creativity of any kind, I took more to the stories, and the lives of the artists, what made them tick, and what made their art click. Over the years I have read many biographies of artists, but was also surprised to see that there had never been a real study of the works of Piet Mondrian. And after reading this, I know my Aunt would have enjoyed this as much as I have. Mondrian: His Life, His Art, His Quest for the Absolute is by noted art historian and writer Nicholas Fox Weber, and looks at the artists life in full, studying his upbringing, influences, controversies, and the works themselves.

Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan was born in 1872 in Amersfort a part of the Netherlands. Pieters'a father was a strict Protestant who had been appointed a school teacher first in one district, and then further away near the German border after changes were made in the educational system. Even as a child Pieter was a little distant from his brothers, a introvert in a way that he liked to keep things his way, in a fixed order. The author speculates that some of the design of the house might have imprinted in young Pieter's mind, something that would show up later. Pieter showed an interest and skill in art, which his father, strict in many ways, nurtured. Instructing young Pieter, was an Uncle who was successful both in business and the art world, known for his paintings that many a family would commission for their homes. Pushed to enter the teaching profession, Pieter passed the rigorous instructions to teach art, though at one point he did fail basic anatomy, something that bothered him. Piet began in landscapes, but soon moved onto abstract art, coinciding with his new thoughts on religion and spiritualism. Thoughts that slowly began to influence his art in many different ways.

A book that is both well researched and well-written. Weber has done an exceptional job of bringing together small facts, and making connections in ways that really bring the influences of this artist to life. Weber has an interesting style, keeping the narrative flowing and never getting bogged down. There are many things that could be considered speculative, such as the windows in his house being more of an influence in Mondrian's later work, but Weber presents it so well, one has a problem believing this. Weber looks at everything, from the break with his uncle in their art styles, making young Piet drop a letter from his name so that no would could confuse the two as being related. One that bothered the artist for years. A few controversies, and finally coming to America, all of this is written both sympathetically and factually, with problems and difficulties addressed. A book that is just as much about creativity as it is about the man and the art.

Recommended for art fans, and for readers who enjoy big books about larger than life people. Also for people, like myself who love to read who artists are both inspired, learn to create, and how they keep that fire to create going.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is what Mondrian craved: to stop fear, to eradicate confusion, to obliterate dogma, and end the trauma of emotion. Their absence was essential to personal liberation. In his own way of life, and in the art he made, Mondrian achieved all of that to an extraordinary degree. His dream was for other people to undo their shackles and enjoy the same freedom he had found for himself. from Mondrian by Nicholas Fox Weber

I spent most of a month reading this biography of Mondrian. It is a massive book that shares everything knowable about the artist, and yet Mondrian remains, in essence, a mystery.

I have seen Mondrian’s work in life, perhaps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art but for sure at the Guggenheim, and I have seen plenty of photos, and remember when Pierre Cardin came out with the Mondrian inspired shift dresses in the early 1960s. But why did I read a massive biography of this artist? Even in the pages of a book, somehow he charms readers just as he charmed the people who met him in real life.

Mondrian held to restrictive beliefs about diet, art, music, and relationships. He was dependent on friends, but cut them off over ideas about art. And yet in late life he promoted unknown artists who didn’t conform to his long held standards. He loved the beauty of this world but considered it a siren call luring him from his quest to transcend the material and embrace the spiritual. He was an antisemite whose career was boosted by Jewish art sellers and friends.

Mondrian hated curves and loved jazz and boogie woogie, adored dancing although hard pressed to find partners because of his strange style. He embraced new techniques like using colored duct tape to plan his paintings but dressed in conservative suits, his stance straight and rigid. He loved Walt Disney’s Snow White!

He was the son of a conservative and strict Orthodox Protestant father. He studied art, supporting himself with paintings of flowers, scenery, and portraits while developing his style, inspired by Theosophy. His artist uncle didn’t want his work to be confused with his nephew’s Neo Plastic work, so Mondrian altered the spelling of his family name. Mondrian went to Paris but was forced to flee during WWII, settling in London during the Blitz. In his last years, he finally realized his dream of living in New York City.

The book is filled with detailed descriptions of Mondrian’s art and what the author’s critical interpretations. Even work that has disappeared, considered deviant by the Nazis and destroyed. When the work was not reproduced in the book I paused to look up the paintings online. There is a section of color prints included in the book.

Nicholas Fox Weber remarks on the joy found in Mondrian’s paintings. Mondrian struggled with mental health issues and health issues, and often struggled to pay his rent. Yet he found such joy in life, in his work, the friends who took care of him.

I found myself inspired by Mondrian’s work style, patiently moving a line or square of color until the work had the balance, or imbalance, that he desired.

I appreciated reading this masterful biography.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

[AcademicEditor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Piet Mondrian’s iconic blocks of primary colors and sharp black lines are instantly recognizable. But understanding the man behind the art? That’s where Nicholas Fox Weber’s biography, "Mondrian: His Life, His Art, His Quest for the Absolute," comes in, offering a complex, engaging look into Mondrian’s journey from the Dutch countryside to the Paris avant-garde scene and eventually to New York.

Weber details the early influence of young Mondriaan's Calvinist upbringing and his uncle’s traditional landscapes on his early artistic development. Mondrian’s path wasn’t just about discovering new techniques—it was about pushing boundaries and eventually rejecting them entirely. By embracing abstraction and seeking “the absolute,” Mondrian was redefining art, aiming to distill reality into its purest form through geometry and primary colors.

I enjoyed reading how idiosyncratic Mondrian was: the man famous for minimalist lines and colors was also a ballroom dancing enthusiast and a loner. And the author sometimes ventures into speculative territory—such as whether the rigid order of his childhood home influenced his later style. But it's interesting, nonetheless.

One thing to note for casual readers: at over 650 pages, this biography is no quick read. And there are very few images in the book—somewhat surprising for a biography of a visual artist.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a temporary digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mondrian was not a complex man. He remained single-mindedly devoted to painting from his youngest years. His personal needs were few. He was intelligent, adaptable, disciplined, a bachelor, and sufficiently personable that he always had at least a few ardent supporters. He always dressed well, was neat in habits, and his work studios, which were also where he lived, were extensions of his paintings. Aside from his work as an artist, his main interests were in dancing and music. The terpsichorean activity he loved was social dancing done in clubs with live music. And particularly later in life, his favorite music was jazz. When he arrived in New York City in 1940, his first night there he heard boogie-woogie for the first time and was obsessed by it for the remaining three years of his life. His last two great works were titled "Broadway Boogie Woogie" and "Victory Boogie Woogie," supposedly unfinished at the time of his death, but only because he hadn't released it yet and continued to see things he could do with it. Mondrian finished paintings only when he sold them or had an idea for a new one and so was forced to go on.

[Jax · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Through the immutable in us, we are united with all things; the mutable destroys our equilibrium, limits us, and separates us from all that is other than us. It is from this equilibrium, from the unconscious, from the immutable that art comes.”

Mondrian, Dali, and Picasso are famous for specific styles, so much so that it can lead to a myopic view of their capabilities. Mondrian for his crisp lines and shapes in primary colors arranged on a white background. Dali for surrealism and the famous melting clock. Picasso for cubism, particularly his female subjects. I knew the latter two artists could produce works of realism but was less familiar with Mondrian’s background. In this biography, Weber describes Mondrian’s development from rigorous childhood training in realistic painting to his “Broadway Boogie Woogie” pure abstraction breakthrough. With captivating style, he presents a man of rigorous discipline and deep conviction who suffered from bouts of interpersonal struggles as if he and Mondrian had been friends. This is an excellent read. Highly recommend.

Many thanks to Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor | Knopf and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

[Rob Levy · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like Mondrian then this is the book for you. It is by far the most complete biography of his life published to date. It's very dense. The author dives into the painter's life, exploring how his upbringing influenced his art and how his art evolved from landscapes into the signature style he is know for today.

A few takeaways. Mondrian was fussy. He was organized and very detailed. There's not a lot of complexity here or tales of crazy antics. But the path he took as an artist is nonetheless interesting.

The book also sheds a lot of light into the art world of the 1930s-40s and how are was bought, sold and displayed. Mondrian's life from the Netherlands to France to America is intriguing.

The book also dives into his creative process and how he tinkered and tinkered and tinkered over his work. But, perhaps the best thing about the book is that it reveals his creative intensity and his motivations to make art.

I red this in small doses since there was a lot to decompress,

[Samantha · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more artists biographies I read, the more I think enjoyment of them is more dependent on the biographer than the subject.

I’m not a particular fan of Mondrian’s art (though I certainly don’t dislike it), yet I felt like I got more out of this than I gave out of other books like it focused on artists whose work I am more fond of.

Nicholas Fox Weber does a tremendously good job of blending narrative nonfiction with art theory here, and manages to make the artist as intriguing as the art. He doesn’t spend a lot of time mired in biographical incidentals (this book is mercifully short on banal child prodigy mythology), and instead focuses on personal details about the artist that are directly relevant to his work and career.

This is long, but it doesn’t feel like it is while reading it, as it flows well and doesn’t wander off into anecdotal content that doesn’t contribute to the broader narrative.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.*

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A big fat biography. Well written, and the subtitle was accurate - it gave me insight into the man, his art, and his philosophy.

While I enjoyed the book, it could have been trimmed (do we need to know every time Mondrian had a cold?) and it would have been good to have photos, even B&W, of each painting that was described. And while I had an appreciation for the artist's works, I found some of the author's rapturous praise over the top.

It was interesting to read how Mondrian kept his apartment/studio's similar to his paintings, and how he labored over each work, making minute changes to lines until each was exactingly perfect.

[Erika P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for an advance copy of this book.

Wow - I truly found this book fascinating. I didn't know much about Mondrian beyond seeing his works in museums, but now I feel as if I know every detail of his life. I would recommend this book for anyone who is a real art fanatic and enjoys getting a peek into the inner workings and life events that led this artist to become who he was.

[christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weber describes Mondrian's geometric works as animated surfaces that affect the eye much like music does the ear. For Mondrian, the goal of each painting was a "visible demonstration of the dissolution of opposites in a continuous, liberated rhythm." It's interesting to see his paintings through this lens--both viewing and creating the work is an act of finding equilibrium, and producing a universal truth.

[Jon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this in-depth look at Mondrian, his art and his life, very thoroughly researched and insightful. There were a few times where I felt that Weber’s assumptions about Mondrian’s thoughts and beliefs took too big of a leap, but the writing kept it engaging - not always easy for a biography of this size.

[Jalal Slava]

Not enough photos; too many, too lengthy, descriptions of paintings that are only lines and primary colors. Would probably be hard to get through if you don't care about Mondrian or his work as it reads pretty much like a textbook. Mondrian was weird enough though to make it somewhat interesting.

[Winston? Kam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like a textbook. Affirmed the largely unknown belief that masterful, canonical artists are often recluses. Stopped at 328 got too boring for me to continue. Maybe I’ll return and read ab Peggy’s relationship w him

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Matt Villa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, very detailed and extremely well written. This author did an incredible job with research and pacing and a mix of biography with discussion of Mondrian’s ideas.

[Sebastiano Gualtieri · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems to me that the aesthetic ideas of Mondrian were more a product of his life experiences and character rather than the result of speculation, as he liked to pretend them to be. His (frankly hyperbolic) reduction of art to its most fundamental elements (horizontal and vertical lines, primary colors and non-colors) seems mostly a cope for certain aspects of his personality. Some of his extreme attitudes are almost comic, like his split with Doesburg because of M’s unwillingness to accept diagonals. But I like his rebellion against representation and his destruction of 3d space, and consider his artistic results extraordinary. Just not for the reasons he would have liked to be. And indeed he seemingly admitted towards the end that "all my paintings were done first and the theory was derived from them", which is a classic problem in artistic research.

The book flows overall but stagnates at times. Mondrian's life and art intertwine with major historical events, especially the two world wars, and the author manages to harmonize all elements.

[Bram · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overtuigende en lezenswaardige biografie. Ideaal voor liefhebbers van dikke boeken. Soms was het wel een beetje oeverloos en naar mijn smaak te uitgebreid, maar het was wel de beste van de drie biografieën van Mondriaan die ik de afgelopen maanden las.

[Matteo Cordero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mondrian: His Life, His Art, His Quest for the Absolute, written by author Nicholas Fox Weber, is a biography about Piet Mondrian, one of the most influential painters of the twentieth century. It is a detailed and complete biography that covers his life from the early days in the rural Netherlands of the late nineteenth century, to his move to the global capital and center of the art world, Paris, and his later life in New York.

In my opinion, this work is probably the best biography ever written on Mondrian. It covers all aspects of his life and the events of the times he lived in. I was so fascinated by his ascetic figure and his restless ambition towards his art, and his idea of perfectionism and purity.