There was an often referred to but rather disappointing piece in Life
Magazine on 2nd July 1945, one year and five months after his death. There are a
few short paragraphs and several illustrations which look as though they were
redrawn for the article rather than images of the originals. Below are the
magazine cover, the pages and the article and images.
SPEAKING OF PICTURES
… THIS IS ART BY PIET MONDRIAN
During the last 30 of his 72 years Piet Mondrian, a Dutchman whose full name was
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, was probably the only artist in history who never
drew a curved line. Ever since his exposure to cubism in Paris in 1910 he had
refined his theory that the best art was rigidly rectilinear. Mondrian died in
New York in 1944 and this year Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art gave an
exhibition of his work, including the examples shown here.
Most gallerygoers are alternately bored and exasperated by Mondrian's meticulous
canvases, which were made by moving Scotch tape around until the pattern looked
right. But critics call it "great art." Said the New York Times critic, Edward
Alden Jewell, "The ultimate 'neoplastic' expression arrived at is brilliantly
his own." Mondrian has had considerable effect on modern architecture, posters
and especially linoleum. But his art is nothing new. It is the kind Plato said
he would like in his ideal republic.

