Somewhat off-topic, but: Piet Mondrian - A Dutch painter whose distinctive grid based creations – horizontal and vertical lines upon a white background adorned with red, blue and yellow blocks – proved one of the most influential experiments with abstraction of the 20th century.
I always thought of Mondrian's work as abstract until the first time I flew to the Netherlands. Dutch people really, really like flowers, and have made them a major agricultural export. Also, a lot of dutch land is reclaimed from the sea and the terrain is pretty flat to begin with. Fly into Schipol at the right time of year and Mondrian's inspiration becomes very obvious - black roads, snow-covered open fields, greenhouses with blocks of vivid color. In a flash, my concept of his work went from 'paintings' to 'pictures'.
I always thought of Mondrian's work as abstract until the first time I flew to the Netherlands. Dutch people really, really like flowers, and have made them a major agricultural export. Also, a lot of dutch land is reclaimed from the sea and the terrain is pretty flat to begin with. Fly into Schipol at the right time of year and Mondrian's inspiration becomes very obvious - black roads, snow-covered open fields, greenhouses with blocks of vivid color. In a flash, my concept of his work went from 'paintings' to 'pictures'.