The Mondrian House has been redesigned into a museum experience. On 8 March 2017, the birthplace opened its doors to the public.
Who was Piet Mondrian? A stern man, straightforward like his work? Hermit, alone in his studio? Or instead a dance fanatic, always on the go? Womaniser, quick to fall in love with young women? There are quite a few versions of the painter's personality in circulation. He led a life of contrasts. The new Mondrian House highlights many sides of the artist.
From 8 March 2017, a visit to the Mondrian House is a museum experience for young and old and a surprising introduction to Mondrian, who was born in Amersfoort on 7 March 1872. Visitors will travel through the life of the idiosyncratic pioneer of abstract art in the birth house: from Amersfoort to Winterswijk and from Amsterdam via Paris and London finally to New York. In the museum experience, visitors discover his iconic work, his spiritual formation, his interests and friends. The Mondrian House uses various audiovisual techniques in the new display, immersing visitors in the artist's artistic quest. The exhibition ends in the DIY studio, the workshop where anyone inspired by Mondrian may create their own artwork.
Video installation
The journey starts at a video installation showing Mondrian's work on 13 different screens. In a five-minute show, the artist's artistic development passes by and visitors see how Mondrian's work gradually changed from realistic landscapes, to luministic scenes to abstract compositions with the characteristic lines and planes. Throughout the presentation, changing styles of music can be heard, appropriate to Mondrian's time and musical tastes.
Full-scale reconstruction of studio
On the Rue du Départ in Paris, Mondrian made many of his abstract compositions in the 1920s. Full of his theories about the visible and the 'real', spiritual world, he arranged his studio according to the rules and laws of his new worldview. Areas of colour, furniture, his paintings: together they created the perfect harmony for Mondrian. In the Mondrian House's life-size reconstructed Parisian studio, visitors can experience how the artist completely moulded his own workspace to his liking.
New York
In the New York room, a transparent white cube is set up around which visitors are seated. Via projections on, inside and outside the cube, including historical fragments and sound bites of New York in the 1940s , visitors get a glimpse, as it were, into the mind of the artist, who created his masterpiece the Victory Boogie Woogie in New York.
The Mondrian House's new presentation was designed and realised by Tinker imagineers. Besides the exhibition spaces, the entrance, museum shop and museum café were also tackled. The redesign of the Mondriaan House was made possible in part by: Mondrian Fund, KF Hein Fund, VSB Fund, PUG, Zabawas, Social Cultural Fund of De Amersfoortse Insurance and Hendrik Muller Fund.