Van Gogh and the Path to Abstraction

In the painting La Maison Blanche, la Nuit (1890), Vincent van Gogh’s vivid brushstrokes, layered over background hues, give the artwork a surreal dimension. His late works are marked by these expressive strokes, almost like vectors of the soul, stirring and expanding the space within his compositions.

La Maison Blanche, la Nuit, 1890, Vincent van Gogh, in the Hermitage Museum.

Had Van Gogh shifted toward a greater focus on minimalist expression rather than detailed representation, his work might have evolved in a more abstract direction. This evolution could have shared similarities with pioneers like Kandinsky and Mondrian, particularly in their use of pure form and color. However, Van Gogh’s distinct style would have likely led him toward a more organic abstraction, where his vibrant palette could have become swirling, interlacing forms—creating a dynamic sense of color and movement that might have hinted at the future development of Abstract Expressionism.

Mondrian Meets… (My Tribute To Mondrian)

Here are two projects involving the geometrical-constructive art of Piet Mondrian, one of my preferred artists, the golden ratio and ϕ. For this purpose, I used the same color palette favored by Mondrian: yellow, red, blue, black and gray.

Mondrian meets Pythagoras and Fibonacci

In the first project, I used squares, that are proportional to each other by the golden ratio or ϕ, to prove the Pythagorean theorem as shown in the Zhoubi Suanjing (or Chou Pei Suan Ching – 周髀算經), one of the oldest Chinese mathematical texts (circa b.c. 200).

Zhoubi Suanking theorem Continue Reading