ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES:
A. Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian was born on March 7, 1872 at Amersfoort. As a young child he and his family moved to Winterswijk. He received his first drawing lessons from his father and uncle (also a painter). Mondrian studied art for several years. Through his art he was able to do a lot of traveling. He was a member of many art societies. Mondrian's style of art developed and changed over his career. Mondrian founded Neo-plasticism. Neo-plasticism is an abstract form of art that manipulates forms, lines and colors. Throughout Mondrian's career he worked with and met many famous artists. Mondrian died of pneumonia on February 1, 1944, in New York.
* Mondrian by L. J. F. Wijsenbeek, @)1968 Verlag Aurel Bongers Recklinghausen.
B. Maurits Comelis Escher
Maurits Cornelis Escher was born in Leeuwarden in 1898. He was the youngest boy in his family. As a young boy his family moved to Arnhem. While in high school, he studied art for two hours a week. Escher's father wanted him to study science and become an architect because of his artistic ability. While attending the School Architecture and Decorative Arts, Escher became interested in graphic techniques. He also studied woodcut at that time. After two years of study he left the school. Through his work Escher was able to travel. Over seventy prints done after 1937 have a mathematical flavor to them. In those paintings Escher never repeated himself. The three themes found among the seventy prints with the mathematical prints are spatial structure, flat surface structure and the relationship between space and flat surfaces in regards to pictorial representation. Escher continually produced prints throughout his lifetime. He stopped producing work for a short time in 1962 when he had a serious operation. Escher moved to the Rosa-Spier Home in Laren, Holland where he was able to have his own studio and be cared for at the same time. M. C. Escher died on March 27,1971.
* The Magic Mirror of M. C. Escher by Bruno Ernst, ~ 1976, Ballantine Books, New York.
C. Victor Vaserely
Victor Vaserely was born on April 9, 1908 in P
écs, Hungary. Vaserely studied at the Muhely. In the 1930 he moved to Paris. There he worked as a commercial artist. He developed a graphic style that he showed in his first exhibition in 1944. For a short time he studied Surrealism. He later devoted himself to geometric abstraction. He used squares, circles and triangles as his basic units. Some of his compositions give an optical illusion of movement. Vaserely is the leading pioneer and outstanding practitioner of optical art. Throughout his career Vaserely was able to travel. Vaserely won many awards land prizes for his work* Vaserely by Werner Spies, ~ 1969 in Germany by Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart.
.