Genre: Nonfiction—Art History
Completed: 27 March 2012
Summary & Review:
Art historian Susanne
Deicher presents a biographical sketch of the iconic Dutch painter Piet
Mondrian along with analysis of the various stylistic periods of Mondrian’s
work. Included in this book are numerous full color reproductions of Mondrian’s
paintings.
I didn’t
exactly enjoy this book, and that is not wholly due to the fact that I find
Mondrian’s work monotonous. I thought that Deicher’s analysis of Mondrian’s
work was terrible. Dozens of times throughout the book Deicher would make
pronouncements about the paintings that made no sense at all. For example, one
time she stated that a later work of Mondrian that was basically a grid of
black lines on a white backing was reminiscent of Renaissance Classicism. Mondrian = Leonardo = DOES NOT COMPUTE. Or,
that another sparse canvas was the equivalent of Rembrandt. I could go on and
on. One side of me can’t blame her, because with paintings like Mondrian’s, how
can you write meaningful analysis? There is nothing there.
Rating: 4.0
I disagree. While the author of this book may have been off base comparing Mondrian to Di Vinci (that is ridiculous), Mondrian's impact on art is still very relevant. Whether you believe in all his Neo Plasticism stuff or not, he has been extremely influential in the design world and spent a lifetime perfecting balance in his work.
ReplyDeleteDitto reference the book the parallels and conclusions are ridiculous, his greatness lies in the ability to create images that have inspired countless new designs this, I think, would have pleased him greatly
ReplyDelete