Piet Mondrian e Bart Van Der Leck. Inventing a new art

The first exhibition in the ‘Mondrian to Dutch Design’ series of national centenary celebrations will focus on the two most important De Stijl painters, Piet Mondrian and Bart van der Leck. They met in Laren in 1917. At that time, artists flocked to the village, including many who would at some point be associated with De Stijl.

By then, Mondrian had lived in Paris for several years, but when the First World War broke out while he was visiting family in the Netherlands he was unable to return to the French capital for the time being. Bart van der Leck did much of his work in the Netherlands, some of it in The Hague. In Laren the two artists struck up a unique friendship and had a major influence on each other’s art. Bart van der Leck was impressed by Mondrian’s search for abstraction, though Van der Leck would ultimately go his own way in his search. Mondrian was very taken with Van der Leck’s use of primary colours. At that time Mondrian was painting mainly in greys and pastel shades.

In Piet Mondrian and Bart van der Leck we will explore the friendship between these two artists and the artists’ enclave in Laren. Discover how two of the greatest De Stijl painters inspired each other, and why they also clashed and eventually went their separate ways. Though Piet Mondrian is now world famous, it is perhaps Bart van der Leck who actually deserves the credit for the use of primary colours. And while Piet Mondrian became a true artistic innovator with his totally abstract paintings, Van der Leck eventually returned to figurative art. Together, Mondrian and Van der Leck laid the foundations for major innovations in painting, typified above all by the use of primary colours and horizontal and vertical lines.