In 1915, Mondrian met Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931), and within two years they were collaborating on a journal which they called De Stijl (The Style). They formed a group with several other artists and designers, also called De Stijl. Through the group, Mondrian explored his theories on art, which were based on his philosophical beliefs about the spiritual order underlying the world. He called it Neo-Plasticism. In 1919 he moved to Paris; in 1938 he lived in London for two years; and in 1940 he settled in New York where he influenced the Abstract Expressionists, who also believed in an underlying spiritual order underpinning human existence.
Key Works
Woods near Oele 1908, GEMEENTEMUSEUM, THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS
Apple Tree in Flower 1912, GEMEENTEMUSEUM, THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS
Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue 1928, WILHELM-HACK-MUSEUM, LUDWIGSHAFEN AM RHEIN, GERMANY
Broadway Boogie-Woogie 1942–3, MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, US
BRANCUSI
1876–1957 • MODERNISM, ABSTRACTION
Bird in Space
1941 BRONZE AND MARBLE
193.4 × 13.3 × 16 CM (76 × 5¼ × 6⅓ IN)
CENTRE POMPIDOU, PARIS, FRANCE
For about 20 years from the 1920s, Brancusi was absorbed by the theme of a bird in flight. He wanted to depict the spirit of a bird as it moves its limbs in graceful harmony. Ignoring wings and feathers, he elongated the body and simplified and slanted the head and beak.
One of the most revered and influential modern sculptors, Romanian Constantin Brancusi’s cutting-edge, sleek and simplified works introduced abstraction and primitivism into three-dimensional art. His originality made him internationally renowned as one of the leading avant-garde artists of the 20th century and many of his works are acknowledged as icons of modern art.
As a child in the village of Hobitza, near Romania’s Carpathian Mountains, Brancusi helped his peasant parents and siblings tend the land and also learned the traditional folk crafts of wood- and stone-carving. He gained a reputation for his woodworking skills and was given a place at the School of Arts and Crafts in Craiova, later progressing to study sculpture at the National School of Fine Art in Bucharest at the age of 22. Five years later, he traveled to Munich and then to Paris.
In Paris, Brancusi worked for two years with the sculptor and painter Antonin Mercié (1845–1916) at the École des Beaux-Arts. After seeing the work of Matisse and others at the Salon d’Automne, with their shockingly bright colors, he realized that the artist’s role was no longer to imitate the appearance of nature. In 1906, he admired the paintings and primitive-looking wood sculptures at a retrospective of Gauguin’s work. Later that year, he was invited to enter Rodin’s workshop. Brancusi greatly admired Rodin and intended to learn much from him, but he left his studio after just two months, claiming, “Nothing can grow under the shadow of a great tree.” During that brief period, he carved some of Rodin’s marble sculptures. The skills of this process, known as “direct carving” had all but died out, but Brancusi, using his physical strength and technical skill combined with intellectual discipline, worked as Medieval craftsmen had done. Since the Gauguin exhibition, several artists in Paris, including Matisse and Picasso, had become particularly interested in the simplified styles of primitive cultures. In 1909, Brancusi met Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920), and together they visited several ethnographic museums, fascinated by tribal masks and their symbolic representations of the face.
From 1907, Brancusi blended the realism he had learned from Rodin and others with the skilled crafts he had learned in Romania and the abbreviated styles of primitive cultures, developing an original and highly influential style. Like other artists at the time, he believed that artists’ depictions of the things around them are only a reflection of their copying skills. For art to be uplifting, it should attempt to portray a spiritual truth, which is only possible through abstract or abstracted art. He focused on a few themes, such as heads, birds and an embracing couple, and was particularly fond of ovoid forms and curved smooth lines. He reduced elements down to a minimum, condensing natural forms into almost abstract simplicity, and his serene sculptures are widely acknowledged as icons of Modernism.
Key Works
Sleeping Muse 1910, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, US
Maiastra 1911, TATE MODERN, LONDON, UK
The Muse 1912, SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, NEW YORK, US
Torso 1917, CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART, CLEVELAND, OH, US
Danaïde 1918, TATE MODERN, LONDON, UK
MALEVICH
1878–1935 • CUBISM, ABSTRACTION, SUPREMATISM
Suprematist Composition: Airplane Flying
1915 OIL ON CANVAS
58.1 × 48.3 CM (22 × 19 IN)
MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK, US
Following the outbreak of World War I in Europe, coupled with unrest in Russia prior to the Revolution, Malevich painted this work, unusually referring to an actual object. Fascinated by the notion of a fourth dimension and still interested in Futurism, the ambiguous image heralds the machine age with brightly colored shapes floating against a white space.
Before the 1917 Revolution, wealthy Russians looked to France for their culture. Modern art was bought from France by a few collectors, but there was no tradition of home-grown contemporary artists. Gradually, some Russian artists began producing their own Modernist styles and Malevich became one of the most important pioneers of geometric abstract art.
Kazimir Malevich was born near Kiev, to Polish Roman Catholic parents. His father was the manager of a sugar factory and Malevich and his siblings spent their formative years living in various Ukrainian villages. He became proficient in the arts and crafts of the peasants, including embroidery and colorful peasant-style painting. When he was 17, he studied drawing at Kiev School of Art and in 1904, after the death of his father, he moved to Moscow and studied at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture until 1910. He began working in a Post-Impressionist style, with flat colors and bold shapes. He participated in exhibitions that were organized by avant-garde artists and in 1912 and 1913, he helped to organize two shows with the artists Natalia Goncharova (1881–1962) and Mikhail Larionov (1881–1964).
Malevich’s developing style demonstrated his appreciation for Russian folk art and the Russian Cubist painter Aristarkh Lentulov (1882–1943). He described his work—peasant subjects in clear colors and cylindrical shapes, reminiscent of Fernand Léger (1881–1955)—as Cubo-Futurist. As a devout Christian, Malevich thought along mystical lines and felt very dissatisfied with representational painting. In 1913, he produced an abstract backdrop for the Futurist opera, Victory over the Sun, which consisted of a rectangle divided into a black upper segment and a lower white one. From then on, he produced some of the most radical paintings of the 20th century. Unlike Kandinsky, he did not align his painting with music, but completely separated it from any recognizable subject. He said that he wanted to “free art from the burden of object.”