Piet Mondrian’s Composition and Rodin’s The Thinker
Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue by Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian’s paintings are abstract oil works on canvas, typically measuring 0.75 x 0.65 meters. Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue is an abstract composition of geometric shapes on a white background, with squares and rectangles of different colors and sizes. The pure colors are crisp, bright red, yellow, and blue, alternately distributed. According to Mondrian, no metric power relations should exist between colors, but such relations had always existed in earlier works. The reachable center of the painter’s profession was the composition.
When you try to represent the painting in two dimensions, the poetics of painting lie in the rectangular methods that limit without isolating primary colors. The result is a fully balanced composition characterized by elemental functionality, rationality, and the thematic content of the forms. The simple distribution of colored elements on a white surface and around lines creates a certain rhythm. This was the purpose of earlier artists, such as the Surrealists, but in time it overflows, and the artwork becomes a reality, autonomous and independent of nature.
Color schemes attempt to express music as an inner necessity. Neoplasticism is based on a strict orthogonal warp and the use of colors and elementary levels. The colors do not reject the sensory qualities of surface texture and color, and Mondrian reduced his palette to primary colors.
Function and Possible Significance
The work is marked ideologically by the Neoplatonic mystical school of thought in vogue in Holland during the First World War, which advocated the rejection of material reality in favor of a more superior and spiritual one.
Antecedents and Consequences
Mondrian’s theories advocate for a process of progressive abstraction. The excessive rigor of his proposals provoked violent criticism. Neoplasticism is considered the origin of geometric abstraction, and Mondrian, with his designs, has become one of the most imitated artists of the century. His notions are reproduced in a multitude of contexts.
Location and Context
Europe experienced a situation of instability characterized by the emergence of nationalist movements and economic tensions between nations. The Russian Revolution had a major impact on European society at the time. The economic disruption of the First World War and the threat of communism emerging from the Russian Revolution led to the resurgence of fascism as an important political force.
Identification of the Work and the Author
The work is titled Composition in Red, Yellow, and Blue, and its author is Piet Mondrian. Its symbolism in Cubist design, as opposed to the irrationality proclaimed by Dada, led Mondrian to a maximum abstraction process, gradually eliminating whatever in his compositions referred to objects. In 1920, he suppressed depth in his paintings. His most characteristic works are placed on a white background with pure elements: thick lines marked in black and spot colors that reduce the color spectrum to the primary colors. Subsequently, he replaced the black lines with lines of paint and aligned rectangular dynamic colors. The group’s theories on simplicity influenced abstractions in industrial architecture and graphic arts.
The Thinker by Auguste Rodin
The Thinker is a figurative bronze sculpture, sedentary and freestanding, measuring 70cm. The composition of the sculpture depicts a naked man with no relation to the outside world. He is alone, with his arms resting on his knees and his head resting on one of his hands. He appears to have an attitude of tense rest, although this can be inferred from his posture. The Thinker is a closed form that concentrates great internal power. He seems quiet but powerful. His right arm produces a significant body rotation, while the use of large diagonals causes dynamic vitality. The treatment of masses of volume is very important, as is the use of the unfinished left arm. Rodin is not worried about it, but rather about the muscle power of the forms. Light slips through the nude body.
Thematic Content
The Thinker was part of an ambitious project called The Gates of Hell. This figure has become a symbol of Rodin’s complete works. It embodies a man reflecting on his fate, his head on his fist, slowly pondering. Fertile thoughts arise in his mind; he is not a dreamer.
Stylistic Language
It is a creative work ascribed to Impressionism, which was essentially a pictorial movement. However, Rodin tried to ensure that his works could be viewed from multiple points of view. On the other hand, the light and dark and the blurry lines of his figures are clearly elements of modernism.
Function and Possible Significance of the Work
Regarding the function of the doors, we know that several traditional scenarios have been considered to explain the work’s meaning. The set consisted of 186 figures. Above and below The Thinker, the main theme represented refers to madness. The figures below demonstrate the futility of human actions, and the scales also indicate figures.
Antecedents and Consequences of the Work
We can point to several examples. The Gates of Hell recalls the importance Rodin attached to the human figure and the treatment of the sculpture. The drama of The Thinker owes much to certain works by Michelangelo. The position of the left arm is reminiscent of the prophet Jeremiah from the paintings of the Sistine Chapel. It is a widely reproduced image.
Location and Context
The Gates of Hell is in the Rodin Museum in Paris, and a sculpture of The Thinker is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The historical context in which we must place the work is the end of the Second Empire, the German occupation, and the social explosion of the Paris Commune.
Identification of the Work and the Author
The work is The Thinker, and the author is the Parisian sculptor Rodin. It departs from the academic approach and reflects an interest in capturing light. The treatment of light links Rodin to the Impressionists, as he is indifferent to the subject. Another aspect that characterizes his unfinished sculpture is the clear influence of Michelangelo’s works, such as The Gates of Hell, The Thinker, and The Kiss.