Mid-Century Modern Framed Mondrian Centennial Guggenheim Museum Poster, 1971

Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was a Dutch painter and theoretician, a pioneer of 20th-century abstract art. He transitioned from figurative painting to a minimalist, geometric style, focusing on primary colors (red, blue, yellow), black, white, gray, and horizontal and vertical lines. His art, rooted in nature, sought universal values and aesthetics. Mondrian was a key figure in the De Stijl movement and his work influenced major art styles like Color Field painting, Abstract Expressionism, and Minimalism, as well as design, architecture, and fashion. Design historian Stephen Bayley described Mondrian as a totem of Modernism.