Piet Mondriaan was born in the Netherlands in 1872. His painting style evolved as he discovered the new styles of painting of Europe in the early twentieth century. He and his painting became more European and international and he changed the spelling of his name from the more Dutch-sounding Mondriaan to the less Dutch Mondrian. He was influenced by Cubism to the point of taking art studies in Paris at the late age of about forty. He had previously been acquainted with artists influenced by Fauvism and Pointillism. But these schools of thought in art were left behind at he developed his own doctrine of art, called Neoplasticism. This aesthetic philosophy was rooted in his interest in Theosophy. Under the guidance of theosophy painting became a devotional experience for Mondrian.
Using his doctrine of Neoplasticism as a guide Mondrian and other artists created works of art which were collectively known as De Stijl (The Style). This started at the time of the First World War.
De Stijl was not limited just to painting; it also included architecture, stage sets and furniture design. Mondrian was joined in creating De Stijl by the artists Theo van Doesburg, Bart van der Leck, Georges Vantongerloo and Gerrit Rietveld. Van Doesburg edited a periodical entitled De Stijl which gave coherence to the movement and in which Mondrian published his formulation of the movements aesthetic principles.
The implementation of these principles can be seen in the artistic production of the group. The reversion to geometric and color simplicity can be seen in Mondrian's Square Composition with Gray Line produced in 1918. The illustration shown below is not a reproduction of Mondrian's painting but a reconstruction of it as a Java Applet. The reason for using this method of presenting Mondrian's painting is that it is more in keeping with the principles of Neoplasticism. The computer can produce the elements of his painting with a purity and uniformity that was only approximated with the use of canvas and paints.
This point is better illustrated with Mondrian's Checkerboard Composition in Light Colors (1919) and his Composition: Checkerboard, Dark Colors.
Mondrian's earlier implementation of neoplasticism seem tame by comparison to his later work. Such an early work (1917) is his Composition III with Color Planes.
The geometrization becomes even more extreme in later years as shown by Mondrian's Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue (1930).
Finally Mondrian's compositions became primarily rhythmic placements of lines.
This line of development culminated in Mondrian's tribute to New York City, Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43). There was only one work after this one, one that was not complete entitled Victory Boogie Woogie.
Mondrian's painting Victory Boogie Woogie seems to have been affected by his ill health and perhaps and perhaps wartime shortages of artist supplies. Some of the colors are muddied rather than the pure tones expected on the basis of Neoplasticism. The painting was no finished and some patches seem to be in the process of being painted out. Below is a reconstruction of Victory Boogie Woogie that attempts to present what Mondrian was trying to achieve. Computer graphics, with its precision and pure, emissive color, is probably the ideal medium for Neoplastic art.