Modern Trends

Mondrian was not just one of the most modern artists of his day; he was also one of the most modern-minded people of the 20th century. Everywhere he went, he embraced contemporary life and the latest trends. From jazz to philosophy and from food trends to Disney movies.

Mondrian and The 7 Dwarfs
In 1938, Mondrian took his brother and sister-in-law to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at a cinema in Paris. It was Walt Disney’s first full-length film and Mondrian was extremely curious about the technology involved. He was so taken with the experience that he bought a gramophone record of the film music and he and his brother embarked on a regular exchange of postcards on which they addressed each other as Sneezy (Carel) and Sleepy (Piet).

Mondrian goes underground
In 1938 Mondrian changed cities, moving from Paris to London. He had to get used to things but he loved London. The vast scale of the city particularly appealed to him: things like the hugely deep escalators in the Underground (much deeper than in the Paris Metro). At first, he was unsure how to keep his balance on them. Fortunately, there were friendly Londoners to help him. ‘It is easy enough once you know how, but you suddenly drop down and that feels strange.’

Mondrian's masking tape
Arriving in New York in 1940, Mondrian discovered a new material to use in his work: painted paper tape. He used it to create his final masterpiece, Victory Boogie Woogie (1942-1944), experimenting endlessly with the composition by arranging, rearranging or removing small sections of tape painted in different colours. It was a quick method of working and had the advantage of damaging the canvas less than constantly scraping off paint.

Foody Mondrian
Mondrian didn’t just eat out a lot; he was quite variable in his diet. In the late twenties, for example, he ate a lot of red meat, supposedly to combat his anaemia. In 1932, on the advice of Man Ray, he switched to a vegetarian diet. For a while he even followed the celebrated Hay Diet, devised by American doctor William Hay, who placed foods in different categories and prescribed or prohibited particular combinations of them. This appealed to Mondrian. It meant he could balance his evening meal – lots of salad and only a little meat and carbohydrates – in much the same way as he balanced his compositions. In the end, however, his favourite dish continued to be coq au vin.

Mondrian's hipster style
Mondrian never dressed extravagantly, but he certainly had a sense of style and an eye for fashion. He was always impeccably turned out. Whenever he was paid for his work, he was quick to cash the cheque and could spend hours window shopping for the latest American fashions. ‘That’s it,’ he would say, studying the displays and dreaming of how the world would one day look. Like many artists of his day, he was mad about jazz and Afro-American culture. That didn’t make him dress more exotically, as some of his contemporaries did, but he did adopt the ‘Pilcer look’, called after the Paris-based dancer Harry Pilcer, who wore his hair slicked back with pomade.