McNay Art Museum- The Tree

The McNay Art Museum- The Tree

I recently made a visit to the McNay Art Museum to take a look at some pieces of art. The one piece of art that struck my attention was a painting done by Piet Mondrian called “The Tree” 1908. The color struck my attention and the leaves had multiple of dark different colors and shades not vibrant more of grays and green. It had a flattening effect of evening light and had dim outlines. The background was dark but the colors of the leaves especially the few light yellow colors brought it to life. I made a comparison with his other painting and they all seem dark and gloomy slightly different from the others. The texture appeared to be smooth, it had depth and balance. The tree was right in the center and there wasn’t anything else around it for it to not have any kind of balance. The painting kind of gave it a small theme to it. It could be the change in seasons and the days are shorter gave it an emotional almost depressing theme in my opinion. Piet Mondrian loved to paint trees and had a quite a collection but most were used with the same colors in this period as well.