Hannah Höch (1889-1978) was a German Dada artist and is best known for her work in photomontage. While living in Paris in 1924, she met Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), a Dutch De Stijl artist. After meeting Mondrian, he soon became one of her many post-war avant-garde friends. Though the two were friends and got along well with each other, their artwork was nothing alike. Höch created busy photomontages from newspaper and magazine clippings of words and images, while Mondrian created minimalistic, nonobjective paintings.

Mondrian believed art was a reflection of the spiritual order of nature. He simplified the shapes in his artwork to basic lines and rectangles and the palette to primary colors.

Höch once said of Mondrian:

Everything in his life was reasoned or calculated. He was a compulsive neurotic and could never bear to see anything disordered or untidy. He seemed to suffer acutely, for instance, if a table had not been laid with perfect symmetry. (qtd. on artcyclopedia.com)

Below is an example of Mondrian’s artwork:

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie-Woogie, 1942-1943.
Oil on canvas, 4′ 2″ x 4′ 2″, Museum of Modern Art,
New York.

Evaluate the artwork above.

After analyzing Mondrian’s painting, Broadway Boogie-Woogie, what conclusions can you make? Do you think Mondrian’s use of the elements of art and principles of design were successful in representing his belief that art is a reflection of the spiritual order of nature? Why or why not? Or do you think the painting supports Höch’s opinion of Mondrian, that he was a compulsive neurotic needing everything to be orderly? Why or why not? Or is there another conclusion that can be made?

“Piet Mondrian Online.” Piet Mondrian Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 June 2016. http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/mondrian_piet.html.