Who was Piet Mondrian? A stern man, straightforward like his work? A hermit, alone in his studio? Or rather an avid dancer, always on the road? A womaniser, easily infatuated with young women? Various versions of the painter’s personality are circulating. He lived a life of contrasts. In the new Mondriaanhuis, many sides of the artist are shown.

A visit of the Mondriaanhuis is a museum-like experience for young and old and a surprising introduction to Mondrian, who was born in Amersfoort on 7 March 1872. In his birth house, visitors will travel through the life of the idiosyncratic pioneer of abstract art, from Amersfoort to Winterswijk and from Amsterdam via Paris and London eventually to New York. In the museum-like environment, visitors will discover his iconic work, his spiritual formation, his interests and friends. In the new setup, the Mondriaanhuis will use various audio-visual techniques, submerging visitors in the artistic search of the artist. The exhibition ends in the Do-It-Yourself studio, the workplace where everyone who has become inspired by Mondrian can create their own work of art.

Video installation 

The journey starts at the video installation in which Mondrian’s work is shown on thirteen different screens. In a five-minute show, the artist’s artistic development passes by, and visitors can see how Mondrian’s work gradually changed from realistic landscapes to luminist scenes to abstract compositions with their characteristic lines and fields. During the presentation, varying musical styles are heard, fitting the times and Mondrian’s musical taste.

Life-size studio reconstructed

On Rue du Départ in Paris, Mondrian created many of his abstract compositions in the 1920s. Absorbed by his theories on the visual and the ‘real’ spiritual world, he organised his studio according to the rules and laws of his new worldview. Colour fields, furniture, his paintings: together they created the perfect harmony for Mondrian. In the life-size reconstruction of his Paris studio in the Mondriaanhuis, visitors can experience how the artist shaped his own workplace to his own will.

New York

In the New York room, a transparent white cube has been installed around which visitors can take a seat. Through projections on, in and outside the cube, with historic fragments and sound bites of New York in the 1940s, visitors are given a view inside the artist’s head, as it were, the artist who created his masterpiece, the Victory Boogie Woogie, in New York.

The new presentation of the Mondriaanhuis was designed and realised by Tinker imagineers. Apart from the exhibition spaces, the entrance hall, the museum shop and the museum café were also renovated. The rearrangement of the Mondriaanhuis was in part made possible by: Mondriaan Fund, KF Hein Fund, VSB Fund, PUG, Zabawas, Social Cultural Fund of the Amersfoortse Verzekeringen and Hendrik Muller Fund.