Piet Mondrian: New Design Bauhausbücher no.5

The fifth installation in the Bauhausbücher facsimile series, revisiting Piet Mondrian’s influential essays on art theory

Although Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was not an active member of the Bauhaus, his name is often mentioned in connection with the art school. Mondrian, cofounder of the De Stijl movement in the Netherlands, called for a strict reduction of visual language to orthogonal composition and primary colors, which met with great approval in Bauhaus circles. His rigorous geometric compositions of verticals and horizontals and strident palette of essential colors were important to numerous Bauhaus masters; Mondrian’s influence appeared in Bauhaus architecture, product design, typography, graphic design, painting and beyond. It is therefore not surprising that Mondrian’s essays on art theory, most of them written for the De Stijl journal, were translated into German and published as number five in the Bauhausbücher series.