Mondrian moved from Amsterdam to the French capital in 1912. He was soon mixing in artistic circles, and it wasn’t long before he developed his own highly abstract variant of cubism. He remained in Paris for two years.
In summer 1914, he was back in the Netherlands for a visit when the First World War broke out, delaying his return to France. Mondrian stayed in his home country for the duration of the war but retained his Paris studio. When he finally got back in 1919, the city seemed to have lost much of its charm. Classical ideals reigned above abstract experimentation, and little was left of the old revolutionary energy. Art appeared to have stopped speeding forward and begun moving backward.
Mondrian, on the other hand, had made significant advances in his own work and his theory of art during the war years. He had produced his first abstract paintings in Laren. He believed art had a guiding role to play in bringing about a harmonious society in which opposites would elevate each other. It was this that he sought to make visible in his work.
He had a clear image in mind of how the new art should look. But Paris wasn’t ready for Mondrian’s radical abstraction. He found little success there with his neoplastic work, although he began to gain increasing recognition in other countries. Still, he remained loyal to his beloved Paris for almost the next two decades.
By 1938, however, he was troubled by international political developments, and just before the outbreak of the Second World War he departed for London. He would stay there until 1940 and then leave for New York. He would never see Paris again.