Ode to Mondrian, et al.

I don't know if you've noticed, lovely readers, but Cath has been shouldering the brunt of the blogging work for the last 2 weeks or so. I've finally recovered enough from a nasty bout of pneumonia so that I can sit up in front of my Mac for more than 5 minutes. Progress indeed!

Before I became an invalid (think trivial Jane Austen character with consumption, hacking lungs out on the settee), I bought this wonderful shift, jersey dress from one of those cheesy/trashy stores at a local discount mall.

I was thrilled that it was related to these things:


(Patridge Family bus and YSL's Mondrian dress c. 1965)

But the art history student in me is even more thrilled to look like a De Stijl painting rather than just a bus or a knock-off:



I don't mean to sound like a snot. I mean, the Partridge Family bus is delightfully retro and Yves Saint Laurent's dress is a masterpiece, but if it weren't for Piet Mondrian, where would they be?

Instead of just a $20 dress, I'm wearing this (in Piet's own words):

"I construct lines and color combinations on a flat surface, in order to express general beauty with the utmost awareness. Nature (or, that which I see) inspires me, puts me, as with any painter, in an emotional state so that an urge comes about to make something, but I want to come as close as possible to the truth and abstract everything from that, until I reach the foundation (still just an external foundation!) of things…

I believe it is possible that, through horizontal and vertical lines constructed with awareness, but not with calculation, led by high intuition, and brought to harmony and rhythm, these basic forms of beauty, supplemented if necessary by other direct lines or curves, can become a work of art, as strong as it is true."

For more information on Mondrian and the De Stijl movement click here.

LL