(photograph © Kiwidutch)
The Hague City Council (Gemeente Den Haag) commissioned a beautification programme for the city’s Electrical Substations.
I’ve been busy trying to photograph as many of them as I can.
Dutch artist Pieter Cornelis “Piet” Mondriaan was born in Amersfoort in 1872 was the son of an art teacher.
He qualified as a teacher and also studied fine art in Amsterdam.
He was initially influenced by Naturalism and Impressionism but it was the Cubist movement that was to change the style of his painting for ever.
Mondriaan moved to Paris as a young man, dropped an “a” from his surname and became known as “Mondrian”.
On a visit back to The (neutral) Netherlands in 1914, World War 1 broke out and he was unable to return to Paris until the war ended.
He returned to Paris after the war and evolved his definitive style of geometric black lines and coloured squares. Later after a short stint in London, he moved to New York (Manhattan) in 1940 to escape fascism and the outbreak of the second world war in Europe. He died in Manhattan in 1944.
This electrical substation pays homage to Mondrian’s work and certainly brightens up a Dutch street in a manner that Mondrian would have been delighted to see.
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
What a wonderful idea! I love when cities make a little extra effort to bring art into spaces where you least expect it.
Comment by Alison — January 27, 2011 @ 10:29 am |
That’s exactly why I love taking the photos of them, these used to be simple gray boxes and this initiative transformed them into beautiful as well as mundane functional. (Wall art is brilliant too for much the same reason)
Comment by kiwidutch — January 28, 2011 @ 11:06 am |
It’s like Partridge Family Bus meets Rubik’s Cube! I’ll say it brighten’s up the street! This must really stand out in the wintertime with everything else being covered in white snow…
Comment by milkayphoto — January 28, 2011 @ 1:23 am |
LOL, What snow? it all ran away Christmas Eve ! But yes you are right, it would look great against a white backdrop… I’ll try and keep that in mind and go look if we get snow next winter.
Comment by kiwidutch — January 28, 2011 @ 5:48 am |
So lovely. I love to see this. Maybe You have noticed that I love art in its many forms and this is just “something”. Thank You showing it.
Comment by sartenada — January 28, 2011 @ 6:16 am |
Yes I love art too… keep watching, because some posts coming up here shortly are especially for art lovers
Comment by Kiwidutch — January 28, 2011 @ 7:32 am |
There were some lovely Mondriaan paintings in the Amsterdam Joods Historische Museum last year. He’s best known for his geometry like this, but he could turn out a lovely landscape in his younger days. This is fun, though and well done Gemeente for putting it there.
Comment by Richard Tulloch — February 1, 2011 @ 4:34 am |
His landscapes were rather monotone affairs weren’t they? I find the geometric ones so much more lively and inspiring.
Comment by kiwidutch — February 1, 2011 @ 2:32 pm |