by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on June 19, 2020 / Updated on September 29, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
About the painting
Mondrian wrote about nature, abstraction and the purpose of art, but quote lists often detach lines from their source or present differing English translations as one fixed statement. This page keeps a short set of source-traceable quotations and explains what each helps us understand. The original art should still be read alongside the words.[1]
At a glance
- SpeakerPiet Mondrian (1872–1944)
- ScopeShort, traceable English excerpts and context
- MethodAttribute the published source; distinguish quotation from paraphrase
- Reading pathFlowers, Cubist trees, grids and late New York work
Mondrian across periods
Contents
- On painting a single flower
- On nature and imitation
- On line, colour and relationships
- On the late work
- How to use Mondrian quotations
- Read the words beside dated works
- What this page deliberately attributes
- What did Mondrian say while still finding his language?
- Why does the translation matter?
- A late interview and the problem of a fixed style
On painting a single flower
Guggenheim teaching material quotes Mondrian recalling that he enjoyed painting “a single flower at a time” to express its structure. The excerpt is short, but it corrects a familiar oversimplification: flowers were not merely a youthful phase abandoned when the grids appeared. Mondrian kept returning to individual blooms. Compare Amaryllis, White Phloxes and Two Arum Lilies. Their pages give the dates and material records for the particular works.[1]
On nature and imitation
The same Guggenheim resource presents Mondrian's distinction between natural beauty and the lifelessness he perceived in simply copying surfaces. He was not saying that nature was irrelevant. Rather, the museum uses his words to explain the move from observed trees and buildings to an image built from interlocking planes. The Tree A and Tableau no. 2 / Composition no. VII make that argument visible without relying on an isolated slogan.[1]
On line, colour and relationships
A quote often attributed to Mondrian begins “Everything is expressed through relationship.” This wording is widely reproduced, but the local site's earlier quote list did not identify a specific text, date, edition or translator. It is therefore presented here as a reported attribution, not a freshly verified verbatim extract. The idea can still be examined through the paintings: a yellow plane appears different beside black than beside a white field, and a line's visual weight depends on the size of the areas it separates. The 1921 Tableau I and 1924/25 lozenge make those relations especially clear.
The Mondrian/Holtzman Trust places the first De Stijl issue in 1917 and describes Mondrian's contemporaneous “New Plastic” work as compositions in rectangular planes. These contextual dates help locate the development of his theory, but they do not by themselves prove any unsourced quotation circulating online.[2]
On the late work
The existing site's old quote list includes a statement that Mondrian felt Broadway Boogie Woogie was progress yet was not fully satisfied with it. That sentiment is plausible, but the old page did not give a traceable letter, interview or published edition. The present page does not reproduce it as authenticated verbatim text. Instead, compare Broadway Boogie Woogie with Victory Boogie Woogie and Trafalgar Square, using the documented works themselves as evidence of continued experiment.
A much firmer late-career remark comes from Mondrian's 1942 correspondence with the artist and photographer Kate Steinitz. Discussing the palette she photographed in his New York studio, he wrote: “I have no palette but a white stone.” The Mondrian Papers connects the letter with Steinitz's photographs and cautiously suggests the shiny surface may have been marble. The words identify a studio tool, but the material remains unproven; a short quote can carry firm evidence and an open question at the same time.[3]
Watch: Piet Mondrian
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Watch on YouTubeHow to use Mondrian quotations
When quoting Mondrian in an article or classroom, record the book, letter, essay or museum source and note whether the English is a translation. A quotation printed by a museum may itself derive from a longer published text. Avoid turning a phrase into an all-purpose explanation for every work: Mondrian's early landscape, 1913 Cubist canvas and 1942 New York painting answer different visual questions.
Read the words beside dated works
Mondrian's statements are easiest to use when placed next to a specific painting. The remark about a single flower can be read with the Amaryllis and the later Two Arum Lilies: the visual evidence shows that close observation of flowers persisted alongside his abstract work. His comments about moving beyond imitation illuminate the transition from a named tree to the 1913 Composition no. VII. A quotation should open a comparison, not serve as a universal explanation of every canvas.
The language of relationships is particularly apt for a painting in which a small coloured plane changes the balance of a much larger white area. Yet a widely circulated wording without a known original edition or translator should remain labelled as an attribution. A source-traceable paraphrase is more useful than a falsely exact sentence in quotation marks. English versions may also differ because Mondrian wrote in Dutch and French at different times. The source, edition and translator are part of the quotation's identity, just as catalogue number and collection are part of an artwork's identity.
What this page deliberately attributes
The Guggenheim teaching resource offers contextualised statements about flowers, nature and the path to abstraction; the Mondrian Trust publishes his theoretical writing. Those primary or institutionally curated texts are the starting points for the quotations here. The page does not treat a repeated social-media caption as an independent source. When a short line is useful but its exact wording is not securely traced, the article describes its idea and states the limit rather than multiplying variants of the same unsupported quote.[1][2]
What did Mondrian say while still finding his language?
A published letter to the critic Israël Querido from 1909 catches Mondrian before he had a settled public theory of abstraction. The Mondrian Papers quotes him admitting, “I do not yet know what I shall become.” It also reports his hope that art could move beyond the merely material. Those words are useful because they resist a tidy account in which every early mill or tree was consciously planned as a step toward a 1930 grid. The letter belongs to a painter working out both his visual direction and the language for it.[4]
His later confidence still required editing. Mondrian drafted a book about art through the 1910s, asked friends to read or hear passages, and converted the project into eleven instalments for De Stijl beginning in 1917. The Mondrian Papers reports his insistence that he “set great store by my writing.” These short excerpts come through a scholarly English translation and commentary. They show why quotations on this page should be linked to a dated document, not taken as timeless slogans detached from the argument he was making.[4]
Why does the translation matter?
Mondrian wrote letters in Dutch, French and, after moving to London, English. The Mondrian Papers explains that terms central to his art, including equivalents of “plastic” and “express,” do not transfer automatically between languages. Its editorial team checks translations against the originals and discusses recurring terms for consistency. Consequently, two English versions of a line may differ without one necessarily being fabricated. A careful citation identifies the letter or essay, its date, the edition and, when known, the translator. A familiar phrase with none of those anchors is better treated as an attribution or paraphrase.[5]
A late interview and the problem of a fixed style
MoMA's account of Mondrian cites his interview with curator James Johnson Sweeney, published in The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin in 1946. There Mondrian said that “The first aim in a painting should be universal expression.” The date of publication is later than his death, so the line should be identified as his reported words in that interview, not as something he wrote in a 1946 essay. MoMA connects the statement to his search for balance between the specific things sensed in the world and what he regarded as universal relations.[6]
The same museum account cites a later remark about overcoming static equilibrium. That point is useful beside Broadway Boogie Woogie: the small, interrupted colour units make the painting feel active without abandoning measured structure. Yet a late statement should not be pasted backwards onto a flower drawing of 1908 as though Mondrian used identical terms at every stage. The dated source tells us which phase of his thought it can illuminate most directly.[6]
The quotation record is itself still developing. The Mondrian Papers currently makes the letters and writings through June 1919 available in its scholarly edition, with the later material due in subsequent parts. It distinguishes original text from translation and annotation. This means an apparent absence from the present edition is not evidence that Mondrian never wrote a line later in life; it means the relevant period may not yet be covered there. The best practice is to name the edition actually consulted and revisit attributions as the corpus expands.[7]
Mondrian artworks directory
Frequently asked questions
Did Mondrian write about his flower paintings?
Yes. A Guggenheim teaching resource quotes his retrospective remarks about painting one flower at a time.[1]
Are all online Mondrian quotes reliable?
No. A phrase should be tied to a published source and, for translated texts, a translator or edition.
What can a quote tell us about a painting?
It can illuminate an artistic aim, but the date and physical details of the particular artwork still need an object record.
Discussion
How do the flower remarks fit the paintings?
Reader Insights
Can one statement explain every period?
Where does translation matter?
Where does translation matter?
Join the Conversation
Share what you notice in this painting below.
References
- The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation, Mondrian teaching material containing sourced remarks on nature and flowers. View source.
- Mondrian/Holtzman Trust, chronology of Neoplasticism and De Stijl. View source.
- The Mondrian Papers, Wietse Coppes, “New insights into a photograph from New York” (2022), transcribing Mondrian's 1942 letter to Kate Steinitz about his palette. View source.
- The Mondrian Papers, Leo Jansen, “The run-up to Mondrian's authorship: ‘a slow attack!’”, citing early letters and the origins of his De Stijl writing. View source.
- The Mondrian Papers, Leo Jansen, “Behind the scenes: Translating Mondrian's letters,” on Dutch, French and English originals and translation choices. View source.
- The Museum of Modern Art, Piet Mondrian artist essay, citing his interview with James Johnson Sweeney and later writings. View source.
- The Mondrian Papers, project edition home and publication scope for letters and writings through June 1919. View source.
- Lead image credit. Short Mondrian quotations and context, with their published sources.
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