The Journey of Piet Mondrian and The Nazi Attack on Modern Art
The power of the creative arts to change the world.
Run for your life.
The tall slim man arrived on the shores of America in 1941. He was 68 years old, his only possessions were the one suit he was wearing, and a life jacket that he had desperately clung too. He was exhausted from the one-month long journey, yet relieved he had made it alive. Piet Mondrian had fled his home in Paris from the persecution of the Nazi Party. He was an artist, and Hitler had declared war on modern art, trying to eradicate both its presence in society and the artists who created it.
When Hitler marched through Europe, countries fell like dominos, as the Nazi Party conquered nation after nation. Writers, composers, philosophers, poets and painters, were all a target for discrimination as Hitler decided what styles of creative expression were worthy of Germany, and which art styles should be eliminated.
Why was Hitler so determined to eradicate modern art? And what impact did this moment in history have on the cultural development of the 20th Century?
The escape of Mondrian.
Mondrian’s paintings had developed from realistic images of landscapes and Dutch scenes. Born in the…
