1908 -1917 · Zeeland, dunes, lighthouse and plus-minus signs

On the beaches of Domburg and Westkapelle, Mondrian gradually reduces wave, horizon, lighthouse and pier to vertical and horizontal ratios, up to the threshold of abstraction.

Between 1908 and the First World War, Piet Mondrian regularly stayed on the island of Walcheren, Zeeland. Domburg, its dunes, its wooden piers and the Westkapelle lighthouse offer simple patterns exposed to constant changes of light. In the first beaches, the sky and the sea are still built with a colorful touch; the piers already introduce a vertical rhythm which cuts the horizontal expanse. The lighthouse functions as an axis, a straight presence opposed to the instability of the water. Mondrian takes up the same subjects in different lighting and simplifies their silhouette each time. When the war keeps him in the Netherlands after his stay parisian from 1912 -1914, the experience of Cubism transformed this observation. In the Jetées et Océan series, the waves, reflections and stakes become short horizontal and vertical lines, often called "more and less" signs. Composition n°10, called Jetée et Océan, retains the maritime origin while giving the network almost complete autonomy. The oval concentrates the signs, the pier persists as a vertical thrust at the base and the ocean unfolds in rhythmic crossings. Ships in moonlight, however, remind us that Mondrian also knows how to build the night by dark silhouettes and values. The coastline is therefore not a simple abandoned stage: it provides sound abstraction its fundamental axes, the expansion of the horizon and the tension between rest and movement. The selection "Sea, beaches and piers by Piet Mondrian" notably compares Composition n°10 (Throw and Ocean) and Beach with a pier in Domburg. His reading favors the story.

The sea teaches Mondrian that infinity can hold in two elementary directions: the expanding horizon and the pier that crosses it.