Masterpieces of Modern Art: Braque, Kandinsky, and Mondrian
Landscape at L’Estaque
Author: Georges Braque
Year: 1908
Style: Cubist
Technique: Oil on Canvas
Subject: Landscape
Location: Kunstmuseum (Bern)
Georges Braque, alongside Picasso, was one of the most prominent artists of Cubism. After some early works close to Fauvism, in 1907 his work shifted towards geometrization, influenced by the Cézanne exhibition in Paris and his relationship with Picasso. Together, they experimented with the technique of collage, creating works very similar in thematic and formal terms. After the First World War, Braque moved away from Picasso and developed a more personal style characterized by the use of bright colors and curved lines.
Formal Analysis
Small green plants introduce the viewer to a strange landscape where different houses and trees intermingle. The painter has chosen to simplify the figures through the reduction of various geometric shapes into simple polyhedral planes such as squares, rectangles, triangles, or trapezoids. The artist rejects the rules of Renaissance perspective and presents a space dominated by multiple viewpoints and focal lighting. The artist uses shading to give a sense of volume, so the objects represented have a flat and three-dimensional appearance at once. From a color standpoint, Braque mixes warm colors (brown, beiges, and ochres) with cool colors like gray and bluish tones. The work embodies the ideas advocated by Cézanne.
Significant Analysis
In this work, Braque shows a particular view of the village, which is an exercise in composition using geometric shapes. The houses are no more than a jumble of cubes embedded in the lush natural setting of trees and plants, demonstrating the influence of Cézanne.
Composition IV
Author: Wassily Kandinsky
Year: 1911
Style: Abstract
Technique: Oil on Canvas
Theme: Fight between knights
Kandinsky is considered the pioneer in the creation of abstract art. After abandoning a law career at the age of 30, he began a successful artistic career. In 1911, he arrived at abstraction with the creation of the first abstract watercolor painting.
Formal Analysis
This is one of Kandinsky’s most representative paintings of the 1910s. The canvas still retains elements that refer to objects of nature, albeit in abstract forms. On the left, two riders seem to be fighting over a rainbow, while in the center, a castle appears to crown a blue mountain before which three knights hold two very long spears. The central scene is divided into two halves. The left side is dominated by irregular planes and unfinished superimposed lines, while the right side shows figures with a more defined finish. Blue, yellow, red, and green dominate a chromatic explosion of great vividness, which contributes to the combined application of a vital and nervous brushwork and a calmer one. Kandinsky created a game full of rhythmic and emotional contrasts, on which the viewer’s eye cannot stop for even a moment.
Significant Analysis
The intentional elimination of the figurative element makes any search for iconographic meaning inconsistent. Kandinsky wanted the audience to confine themselves to the contemplation of the lines and colors on the canvas, prepared with the aim of directly influencing their sensitivity.
Tableau II
Author: Piet Mondrian
Year: 1921-1925
Style: Neoplasticist
Technique: Oil on Canvas
Subject: Abstract
Piet Mondrian was one of the most important figures in the development of abstract art. Starting from an essentially naturalist and symbolist style, Mondrian became interested in the value of structure and the formal synthesis of Cubist compositions, which he discovered during his trip to Paris in 1911. From there, he developed his painting along a clear path toward abstraction.
Formal Analysis
Mondrian presents a highly schematic composition, eliminating all that he considered superfluous. Thus, the painter uses only the most elemental forms and their basic components: the line and the plane. The colors are primary (blue, yellow, and red) along with black and white. Mondrian skillfully handles the plastic solutions. An example is the presence of black lines that separate the different planes, the function of which is to prevent the visual mixing of colors, aiming to maintain the purity of the whole. The artist plays with the characteristics of colors (yellow rises and expands, blue recedes, and red stops). Mondrian adds a clever geometric diversity based on the square and rectangle, helping to create a dynamic structure that prevents excessive rigidity.
Significant Analysis
This is one of the most representative panels of Neoplasticism. These plastic laws serve the compositions of the painting to express an idea. The Dutch painter, with his radical proposal, removed all geometric figuration, starting to close the road opened by Cézanne. His compositions summarized his ideology, focused on the artistic value of geometrical forms themselves, not subject to the formation of specific and recognizable figures. Mondrian saw his painting as a metaphorical expression of universality aimed at achieving the ideals of perfect beauty and harmony.