TO BE SEEN SOON
In 2023, Museum Villa Mondrian will celebrate its tenth anniversary. In this year of celebration, the museum will bring together the heritage of Piet Mondrian and contemporary artists and designers in an unprecedented way.
Museum Villa Mondrian is the museum for coming-of-age. The world-famous Piet Mondrian developed during his teenage years in this villa in Winterswijk. In addition to masterpieces by the young Mondrian, the museum displays works by both established and contemporary artists in their search for their own signature. One thing the artists have in common: like the young Mondrian, they are all in the turbulent period of their development.
From April 28, 2023, ‘Mondrian: the Family’ will for the first time show the art of father, uncle and son Mondrian together. Today, the name “Mondrian” is mostly associated with the painter who would radically change the arts. Still, the artistic influences of father and uncle Mondrian are identifiable in the works of young Piet. Where he devoted himself to the autonomous arts, his father Mondrian Sr. put his drawing talents to political-social purposes. Uncle Frits Mondrian, a celebrated painter in his time, eagerly passes on the art of painting to his nephew. Not much later, the artistic mindsets between the family members put relations on edge. For example, Piet turns away from the traditional style of art in which his father and uncle work. Villa Mondrian now shows how these divergent views influenced the development and reputation of the artist family.
Like Mondrian, Eibergen-born painter Marjolein Rothman went through a process from figuration to abstraction. Rothman lived in the Achterhoek region during her youth; therefore, the experience of the scenic landscape resonates in her work. Her representations are divided into just a few planes as we see, for example, in Piet Mondrian’s work Wheat sheaves in the field. In her solo exhibition ‘Interval’ figuration, reality and that which seems intangible take on a whole new meaning.
In ‘Sheltersuit: design with a necessity,’ designer Bas Timmer shows the development of the Sheltersuit. After studying at the fashion academy, the designer encounters an urgent problem. When an acquaintance of his dies of hypothermia, Timmer thinks it is time to contribute to a solution. The fashionable clothing line he designs gets a translation into the Sheltersuit. The Sheltersuit provides warmth during extreme weather conditions and is made from textile waste. Timmer himself notes “that Sheltersuit would rather not exist. And although the goal is to combat injustice, the products also have artistic quality. It’s also kind of design with a necessity.
