Amersfoort honors Mondriaan's 150th birthday with year-long celebration

Amersfoort is celebrating for a year to mark the 150th anniversary of painter and art theorist Piet Mondriaan's (1872-1944) birth in the city. The celebration consists of almost a hundred activities, including several exhibitions, a song cycle, four other stage productions, and a birthday party on March 7 at the Flint theater. Mondriaan will also get a commemorative coin, and Mondriaan-style cars will roll off the production line. 

Mondriaan renewed himself as an artist throughout his life. He started painting landscapes but gradually developed the abstract and non-figurative style he became famous for. Especially his work with horizontal and vertical black lines and areas in primary colors is world-famous. 

Mondriaan strived for an early paradise, according to the organizers of the Amersfoort festive year, Feest der Verbeelding. Kunsthal KAdE invited twelve artists to reflect on the utopian ideal of the makeable world. There are also exhibitions in other places in Amersfoort, including the Mondriaanhuis.

The song cycle "Letters to Mondriaan" will be performed at the beginning of March, based on the many letters the artist sent to his girlfriend. Later in the year, there will be a hip-hop performance. The Mondriaan party starts on February 5, within the coronavirus measures in force at the time.