Style Imitating Art | Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1 by Piet Mondrian

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

It was my turn to choose the artwork. Since I have been feeling rather abstract lately, I chose Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1 by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. 

The Artwork

Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1 by Piet Mondrian

About the Artist: Piet Mondrian

Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (known professionally as Piet Mondrian since 1906) was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who has been acclaimed as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Born on March 7, 1872, in Amersfoort, Netherlands, he was the second child of Pieter Cornelius Mondriaan, a head teacher at a primary school in Winterswijk. His father was a skilled drawing instructor and his Uncle Frits Mondriaan was a student of The Hague School of artists. Under their tutelage, the younger Piet often drew and painted along the River Gein.

Raised in a strict Protestant household, Mondrian entered the Academy of Fine Art in Amsterdam in 1892 already qualified as a teacher. He began his career teaching in primary education but also practiced painting during the same time. His earliest paintings were naturalistic or Impressionistic focusing mostly on landscapes and pastoral images of his native country. These early paintings illustrate the various artistic influences on Mondrian’s art including pointillism and Fauvism. He had his first art exhibition in 1893.

Between 1905 and 1908, Mondrian’s works began showing the first signs of abstraction, depicting dark scenes of indistinct trees and houses reflected in water. While these paintings were firmly rooted in nature, they planted the seed for his future abstract works.

In 1908, Mondrian became interested in the theosophical movement and subsequently joined the Dutch branch of the Theosophical Society in 1909. From this point forward, Mondrian’s work was inspired by his search for spiritual knowledge.

In 1911, he moved to Paris and changed his name. Dropping an “a” from his surname represented his departure from the Netherlands and his integration into Parisian avant-guard society. During the next three years in Paris, he was influenced by the Cubist techniques being used by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and began immediately incorporating Cubism into his works. However, Cubism was not Mondrian’s final artistic destination with his Cubist period lasting from 1912-1917.

In 1913, Mondrian began fusing his art with his theosophical studies in an attempt to reconcile his painting with this spiritual pursuits. This fusion signaled his final break from representational painting. On a trip back to the Netherlands in 1914, World War I began which forced Mondrian to remain in his native country for the duration of the conflict. For the next four years, he stayed at the Laren artists’ colony where he made his personal transition to abstraction.

When the war ended in 1918, Mondrian returned to Paris where he would remain for the next 20 years. During these years in Paris, he flourished as he fully embraced the art of pure abstraction which would define his work for the rest of his life. Late in 1919, Mondrian began producing the grid based paintings which would become his signature style that he is most widely known for.

Mondrian believed that “pure abstract art becomes completely emancipated, free of naturalistic appearances. It is no longer natural harmony but creates equivalent relationships. The realization of equivalent relationships is of the highest importance for life.” During the latter part of 1920 into 1921, Mondrian’s abstract works reach their definitive and mature form with thick black lines separating forms which are larger and fewer than his previous works. As his art progressed, the lines began to take precedence over the forms. In the 1930s, he began using thinner lines and also introduced double lines which he believed offered new dynamics that he was eager to explore.

In the face of advancing fascism, Mondrian moved from Paris to London in 1938. In 1940, when the Netherlands were invaded and Paris fell, he relocated to Manhattan, New York, where he lived for the rest of his life. He died of pneumonia on February 1, 1944, at the age of 71. He never married and had no children.

About the Artwork: Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1

Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1 is an oil on canvas measuring 107.6 cm (42.3 in) x 78.8 cm (31 in) painted in 1914.

The painting was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1950. It is currently not on view but is described as such…

“The geometry of this composition, made two years after Mondrian moved from Holland to Paris, is directly based on sketches of partially demolished buildings, with exposed floors, chimneys, and patches of wallpaper. Mondrian believed that horizontal and vertical lines, such as those he used here, expressed an underlying, universal order.”

The painting showcases nuances of ocher, yellow, and brown, with a few touches of blue-gray as a contrast while the triad of colors can be reduced to the three primaries of red, yellow, and blue.

References/Resources

• Piet Mondrian: Wikipedia
• Wikimedia Commons: File:Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)- Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1, oil on canvas, 1914, Museum of Modern Art.JPG
• Dutch Magus: Excavating the mysteries of Mondrian’s greatness.
• Oval Composition, 1913-14 by Piet Mondrian
• MoMA: Piet Mondrian Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1 1914

About My Outfit

I truly stumped myself but then I thought I had three different outfits that might work. But when I started putting the outfits together for photographs, I hated them all and started over. Focusing on the simplicity of the abstract form as well as the colors and the lines, I created this outfit using a pink dress and a thrifted navy blue ruana with a vertical striped pattern. My blue is obviously much darker than the pale shade used in the painting, but it’s what I had that made sense to me.

After representing the pink and blue from the painting, I needed to incorporate something ocher. My preloved suede ankle boots were the perfect color. I also added gold earrings and a round (I didn’t have an oval one) ocher pendant to coordinate with my boots. The grayish-tannish-whitish background is represented by my ivory and tan chevron belt as well as the white stripes on my ruana.

I didn’t love this outfit but I also didn’t hate it. I brought it with me on our weekend getaway to take photos in our hotel for a change of scenery. I really liked how the colors and lines on the lounge chair in our room matched the painting and the big white wall in the stairwell was the perfect backdrop for this artwork.

How did I do?

If you want to play along and be featured with your art inspired outfit in my gallery post on Wednesday, September 25, 2024, be sure to submit your photos to me at shelbeeontheedge@gmail.com by 10:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, September 24, 2024. In the meantime, be sure to check out Salazar’s interpretation of this painting as well as Marsha’s take on it. 

Happy styling, my friends!

Shelbee

Link Parties to Join!