Cees W. de Jong is Director of the design studio and publishing company V+K Design-Publishing in the Netherlands. He has written a number of books, including Dutch Graphic Design, New Poster Art, Creative Type, Piet Mondrian: The Studios and Sans Serif, all published by Thames & Hudson.

An exploration of the instantly recognizable work of the abstract artist Piet Mondrian, inspired by the cities that influenced him. It is illustrated by a wealth of paintings as well as personal photographs, documents and texts written by Mondrian himself.

'A visual journey along the studios of Piet Mondrian/Amsterdam, Laren, Paris, London, New York', Cees W. de Jong - 'From bohemian brown to stylish black and white/ The studios in Amsterdam', Marty Bax - 'The great struggle/The studios in Laren', Martijn F. le Coultre - 'Artistic and philosophic connections/Long lines and varying contacts', Marty Bax - 'Place of free spirit/Fruitful meetings', Marjory Degen - '"As soon as you stepped inside you were in paradise"/The studio in Paris', Ingelies Vermeulen - 'The new plasticism in the art of painting/IV. Plastic and composition, De Stijl, No. X, 1th year 1917, Piet Mondriaan - 'The realization of neo-plasticism in the distant future and in today's architecture/De Stijl, No. 5, 5th year May 1922', P. Mondrian - '10 years of style/De Stijl, No. 79-84, Jubilee-series (XIV). 1927.', P. Mondrian - 'Neo - Plasticisme. The Home- The Street - The City/i10 Amsterdam 1927, Piet Mondriaan - 'Color planes climbing up the walls/The studio in London', Marty Bax - 'Like a walk in one of Mondriaan's paintings"/The last studios in New York', Ingelies Vermeulen - 'All that Jazz/Victory Boogie Woogie

The work of Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) played a crucial role in shaping the avant-garde art of the 20th century. Each section of this visual journey through Mondrian's life and career takes its inspiration from the location of one of the artist's studios, tracing his path from Amsterdam to Paris, and via the Dutch village of Laren to London and New York. Each of these locations represents a distinct stage in the development of Mondrian's art: from the naturalistic paintings of the 1890s and the experimental neo-Impressionist works of the early twentieth century to his involvement with the De Stijl movement and his famous grid paintings, and finally the bold dynamism of his late work in the United States, inspired by the rhythms of jazz and the buzzing metropolis. As Mondrian's art took the simplification of form to an extreme, the walls of his studios became an ever-changing surface made up of cardboard rectangles painted in primary colours, white and grey.