Maybe you don’t know Mondrian, but you must know Dior, Chanel and YSL.

In 2013, Chanel launched a spring and summer fashion series of bags, which looked like this:

In 2014, Dior launched a spring garment with similar lines and colors:

But they are not as fast as YSL. As early as 1965, YSL launched a set of skirts of the same style:

If you look closely, you will find that they have the same elements: plaid and Three primary colors.

The inspiration for all these luxury goods comes from the following person:

Mondrian.

He is a representative figure of De Stijl in the first half of the 20th century and is famous for painting various grids:

So, what are these seemingly simple grids? The good thing? So much so that big names in the design and fashion world pay tribute to him?

The reason is that Mondrian's grid implements the principle of "less is more". It looks simple on the surface, but in fact it has great potential.

In these grids, he tried to use abstract forms to express the universal laws of the universe.

How simple are Mondrian's works?

Use only straight lines for lines.

Basically the three primary colors of red, yellow and blue are used.

Why? Why did Mondrian choose this seemingly simple form?

This is related to Mondrian's artistic concept.

Let us think about it, what is the essence of painting?

Is the object imitated very realistically?

No, the invention of the camera allows ordinary people to take a photo that is more realistic than any painting by an old master.

Is it to create the depth of space on a two-dimensional flat canvas?

No. Sculpture is far better than painting in creating a three-dimensional sense, because sculpture is inherently three-dimensional and touchable.

In Mondrian's view, painting, to put it bluntly, is a modeling relationship - that is, composition and color.

Michelangelo once believed that sculpture is higher than painting. The reason is very simple, because sculpture is a real space art.

For example, look at Leonardo da Vinci's "Madonna of the Rocks":

The painting is so harmonious, stable, and clear in priority, actually because he used a pyramid composition. The top of the pyramid converges on the head of the Virgin, so she is the protagonist of the entire picture.

Look at Van Gogh's "Starry Night" again:

The large-scale use of cold colors allows people to feel the depth and desolation of the night, but at the same time, it is supplemented by the warm and warm starlight, making the People feel that there are traces of warmth seeping into their hearts.

To put it bluntly, there are actually two core elements of painting: composition and color.

In Mondrian's view, those so-called images obscured the core of painting, so he kept making subtractions to reduce painting to the most basic elements: lines and colors.

There is no need for any identifiable specific image, no rich and colorful paint colors. In the end, even lines and colors are simplified to the point that they cannot be simplified any more: lines are only straight lines, and colors are mainly three primary colors; There are only squares and rectangles. The sense of three-dimensionality and imageability are completely eliminated.

The elimination of all identifiable themes is crucial to revealing universal laws.

Let’s take a look at one of Mondrian’s most classic works: "Composition of Red, Yellow and Blue"

At first glance, the audience will think that this painting is very simple: it is not just a straight line As for color blocks, give me a ruler and I can draw them too!

But in fact, if you look at this painting carefully, you will feel that although it is simple, it is very harmonious, very orderly, pleasing to the eye, and makes people feel that this painting is indeed carefully crafted by an artist. The handwriting of the design, not the whims of an art layman.

How is this sense of fit achieved?

First, we notice that his black lines vary in thickness.

This was Mondrian's intention. In his view, the speed of visual movement is related to the thickness of the lines. If the lines are thick, the line of sight will move slower; if the lines are thin, the movement will be faster. Hurry up.

This creates a sense of movement. In addition, the painting's dynamic balance comes from its asymmetrical composition.

In the upper left corner of the screen, there is a huge red square, so at the other end of the diagonal, a blue square is used to balance it.

On the right side of the other diagonal line, a slim yellow rectangle is arranged to offset the weight of the other two color blocks.

White is lighter than other colors, but it occupies more space, thus achieving a balanced position with other colors.

None of these colors dominates, they all compete fairly.

Through this arrangement and structure, Mondrian successfully achieved balance and harmony in the picture.

Even he himself said: "Neoplasticism represents equality, because although each part is different, it can make each part have the same value as the other parts."

Once I showed this painting to a friend and asked her what she saw.

She replied, seeing rectangles and squares of various colors.

Is that so?

If you observe carefully, you will find that in this painting, there are no squares or rectangles made of lines in the true sense.

The so-called squares and rectangles are just an illusion created by Mondrian's clever use of black lines and canvas borders.

So upon closer inspection, we will feel that this canvas seems to have been cut from a larger and more complete work, with the intercepted edges extending infinitely to the outside of the picture.

This painting does not show any vivid and specific images, but it still allows you to imagine endlessly. This is the charm of this work.

Let us review the subtlety of this painting:

Some people believe that creating such a work does not require superb painting skills.

Is that really the case?

Art critic James Elkin, who teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, once led his students to conduct an experiment.

He led his students to the museum to imitate the works of the masters. When a student told him that he wanted to copy Mondrian's works, James was a bit disapproving - it was a bit too simple.

But it ended up slapping him in the face. It turns out that Mondrian's paintings are not as easy to imitate as imagined.

If you start from the right edge, you will notice that Mondrian changed his mind here and the line ends abruptly at the edge of the canvas, but does not reach the edge.

If you squat down and look up at this painting against the light, you can see from the texture of the canvas that the paint used in the black rectangles in Mondrian's paintings is thinner, so it seems that the black rectangles around the black rectangles are The line seems to be higher than the rectangle.

Looking at the yellow area, you will find that the paint in this part is very thick, so the yellow blocks seem to be floating on the surface of the lines.

The surface texture of this painting is rich and dense, and looks even and coordinated, such as the blue areas. You can almost imagine how Mondrian used a hard brush to brush back and forth across the surface of the paint.

One of James’s students tried to paint this thick and dense texture, but the result was this:

So, Mondrian’s work looks flat at first, but in On this plane, there are subtle shades and fine brushstrokes. In other words, he almost treats painting as sculpture.

From the above analysis, we can see that Mondrian's seemingly ordinary paintings not only reflect his superb drafting skills, but also reflect his profound philosophical thinking.

This reflects the principle of less is more: a work makes you feel very simple, but it contains the infinite ingenuity of the artist.

This also tells us that if you do a simple thing to the extreme, you can reap unexpected results.

This principle is exactly suitable for us to deal with the complicated modern life with a simple and pure heart.

It is precisely because of this that designs from all walks of life pay tribute to Mondrian.

For example, the City Hall of The Hague (Mondrian’s hometown) in the Netherlands:

In 1999, American artist Emily Duffy spray-painted the entire car based on Mondrian’s works, and at the same time Corresponding clothing and objects were designed, and the car became the center of attention at art car shows at the time.

PA Design, a Paris-based creative team, has created a Mondrian colored note paper. Combining sticky notes of different colors such as red, yellow, white and blue, together with the appropriate amount of space left, together form an abstract painting.

Even the common plaid shirts and the logo of Windows are more or less influenced by Mondrian.

This is the meaning of a master: you may not understand him, but your life is influenced by him everywhere.

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