Mondrian the Modernist | Victoria Martino Art Lecture Series

Tue Feb 08 2022 at 07:30 pm to 09:00 pm

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | San Diego

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library
Publisher/HostAthenaeum Music & Arts Library
Mondrian the Modernist  | Victoria Martino Art Lecture Series
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Join art historian Victoria Martino, as she honors the legendary “father of modernism,” Piet Mondrian, commemorating his 150th birthday.
About this Event

Presented by Victoria Martino

Tuesdays, February 8, 15, 22, March 1 & 8; 7:30 PM

Series tickets (five lectures): $70/95; Individual tickets: $16/21


“Holland has produced three great painters who, though a logical expression of their own country, rose above it through the vigor of their personality – the first was Rembrandt, the second was Van Gogh, and the third is Mondrian.” Katherine Dreier. New York: 1926.

Join art historian Victoria Martino, as she honors the legendary “father of modernism,” Piet Mondrian, in a five-week lecture series, commemorating the 150th birthday of the artist.

Heir to the venerated Dutch landscape tradition, Mondrian became a pioneer of abstract art, and a leading exponent of the Dutch avant-garde movement, De Stijl (The Style). His lifelong search for absolute purity of form, color, and line reflected his deeply held spiritual belief in a balanced and harmonious universe.

This five-week lecture series will trace Mondrian's dramatic development through a veritable lexicon of art movements: from his early representational landscapes, through Fauvism, pointillism, post-impressionism, neo-impressionism, luminism, and cubism, to the final breakthrough of his unique personal style, which has become synonymous with twentieth-century modernism.

February 8: Netherlands (1872-1911). Beginnings and Awakenings

Born into a devout Calvinist family in central Holland, Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, Jr. was encouraged by his family to draw and paint from early childhood. In 1892, he enrolled in the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in Amsterdam, where his academic training focused on drawing from the model, copying the Old Masters, and genre painting. He supported himself by making scientific drawings, producing copies of museum paintings, and giving private drawing lessons in his studio.



February 15: Paris (1911-1914). Experimentation and Integration

In 1911, Mondriaan visited the Moderne Kunstkring exhibition in Amsterdam. He was so impressed by the avant-garde work of the Cubists, that he immediately resolved to move to Paris. Upon arrival, he changed his name, dropping an “a” from “Mondriaan,” as a symbol of his complete immersion into a new culture and society. Experimenting with the style of Picasso and Braque, Mondrian found a way to integrate representational form and geometric abstraction in his work.


February 22: Netherlands (1914-1918). De Stijl and Neoplasticism

In the summer of 1914, Mondrian returned to the Netherlands to visit his father, who was seriously ill. The outbreak of World War I prevented him from returning to Paris, so he settled in the avant-garde artists’ colony of Laren, where he met Bart van der Leck and Theo van Doesburg. With Van Doesburg, Mondrian founded the journal, De Stijl (The Style), in which he published essays defining his artistic theory, which he named Neoplasticism.


March 1: Paris (1918-1938). Innovation and Determination

Although he returned to Paris at the end of the war, Mondrian continued his close collaboration with the artists of De Stijl. The 1920 publication of his booklet, Le Néo-plasticisme, served to disseminate his new theories throughout Europe. In the course of the years that followed, Mondrian’s artistic innovation led to the development of a unique pictorial language. Ever pursuing pure abstraction, he became affiliated with the international art associations, Cercle et Carré and Abstraction-Création.

March 8: London and New York (1938-1944). Broadway Boogie-Woogie and Victory

In 1938, with war on the horizon, Mondrian decided to move to London. There he was welcomed by the Circle group, which had published his first essay in English, Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art. The bombardment of London led him to flee to New York City, where he was received with enthusiasm by artists and collectors. Invigorated by the vibrant energy of the city, he worked tirelessly, until his death from pneumonia in 1944.


About Victoria Martino:

Victoria Martino is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard University and the University of California. A specialist in European modernism, she has written and lectured extensively on artists of the early 20th century, including (among others) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and the German avant-garde periodical PAN. She has curated numerous museum exhibitions in Europe and the United States and has published over 60 catalogue essays and scholarly articles. Ms. Martino has been a guest professor at universities in Australia and the United States, and she has participated in international scholarly symposia. A professional art critic, she has published exhibition reviews in THE Magazine, New York Arts, The Berkshire Review for the Arts, The Huffington Post, and many European journals.


The lectures will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. These events will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of each lecture. Face coverings are required for attendees, regardless of vaccination status. Event capacity is limited to 70% for now.

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Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall Street, San Diego, United States

Tickets

USD 40.00 to USD 10000.00

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