Piet Mondrian (real name Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan; * 7 March 1872 in Amersfoort, Netherlands; † 1 February 1944 in New York City, New York) was a Dutch painter of classical modernism. The artist, who created the style of Neoplasticism, is considered the most important representative of Dutch Constructivism as well as Concrete Art, so called by Theo van Doesburg. With his later work, he was one of the founders of abstract painting.
Mondrian began painting around 1900 in the Impressionist style of the Hague School. From about 1908 he worked under the influence of Vincent van Gogh and Fauvism. After moving to Paris in 1911, he turned to Cubism under the influence of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Beginning in the 1920s, Mondrian created the well-known strictly geometric paintings attributed to Neo-Plasticism. Their characteristic structure of a black grid, combined with rectangular surfaces in primary colors, leads to their inclusion in art, architecture, fashion, advertising and popular culture up to the present day. As an art theorist and co-founder of the artists' association De Stijl, Mondrian wrote, among other things, Le Néo-Plasticisme, which was published in 1925 in German translation as Bauhaus Book No. 5 under the title Neue Gestaltung. Neoplasticism, Nieuwe Beelding. He loosened up the works newly created in exile in New York from 1940 in a mosaic-like manner into the primary colors and in this way overcame the earlier strict compositions in favor of the new musical rhythmization of the motif.