Art and Architecture Meet: Mondrian Inspiration
As the International Style and Modern Movement emerged in architecture, the art world was moving right along with it in tandem. One of the best examples of this is the work of Piet Mondrian, particularly the abstract works he produced after fleeing WWII in Europe and landing in Manhattan.
These works, in a nutshell, consist of a white background with perpendicular and parallel lines that break free of the square grid. He added color blocking in the three primary colors of red, blue and yellow. Mondrian became a master of composition, movement, and manipulating the white space that remained. His "Broadway Boogie Woogie" emerged from this base, adding all of the movement and excitement of the inspiring city around him.
If you do a quick search of "Mondrian" images, you'll find looks inspired by his paintings on everything from cars to sneakers (it's actually a riot, I recommend doing that search after you read this). My personal favorite is the 1965 YSL dress.
When looking at architecture, it's fun to see the play between Mondrian's art and building. A lot of times architecture studio instructors will have students take a painting like "Broadway Boogie Woogie" and use it as a jumping-off point for a plan or cut it up and collage it to inspire a facade. Here are some Mondrian-esque moves designers are using today.
These works, in a nutshell, consist of a white background with perpendicular and parallel lines that break free of the square grid. He added color blocking in the three primary colors of red, blue and yellow. Mondrian became a master of composition, movement, and manipulating the white space that remained. His "Broadway Boogie Woogie" emerged from this base, adding all of the movement and excitement of the inspiring city around him.
If you do a quick search of "Mondrian" images, you'll find looks inspired by his paintings on everything from cars to sneakers (it's actually a riot, I recommend doing that search after you read this). My personal favorite is the 1965 YSL dress.
When looking at architecture, it's fun to see the play between Mondrian's art and building. A lot of times architecture studio instructors will have students take a painting like "Broadway Boogie Woogie" and use it as a jumping-off point for a plan or cut it up and collage it to inspire a facade. Here are some Mondrian-esque moves designers are using today.
Don't you just hate those ugly gates available on the market to keep your kids and/or pets off the stairs? This custom gate is an eye-popping solution.
This architect added a few more shades to the primary color palette and used color blocking to continue a line started by windows.
This simple and beautiful exterior looks like a corner of a Mondrian painting in 3-D.
The massing of this building and the shapes of the windows and doors are all a play on geometry. The arrangement is balanced and pleasing to the eye.
This project brings color blocking outside, and moves into blues and blacks instead of the primary color palette.
Squares and rectangles painted the same color create new shapes when they are next to each other.
I couldn't resist swiping this image from a blog that I found via my Mondrian images search.