Mondrian Art in CSS From 5 Code Artists

Mondrian is famous for paintings with big thick black lines forming a grid, where each cell is white, red, yellow, or blue. This aesthetic pairs well with the notoriously rectangular web, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed over the years with CSS developers. I saw some Mondrian Art in CSS going around the other day and figured I’d go looking for others I’ve seen over the years and round them up.

Vasilis van Gemert:
What if Mondrian used CSS instead of paint?

Many people have tried to recreate a work of art by Mondriaan with CSS. It seems like a nice and simple exercise: rectangles are easy with CSS, and now with grid, it is easy to recreate most of his works. I tried it as well, and it turned out to be a bit more complicated than I thought. And the results are, well, surprising.

Screenshot of a webpage with a large serif font in various sizes reading What if Mondrian Used CSS instead of Paint? above two paragraphs discussing Mondrian Art in CSS.

Jen Simmons Lab:
Mondrian Art in CSS Grid

I love how Jen went the extra mile with the texture. Like most of these examples, CSS grid is used heavily.

Mondrian Art in CSS Grid from Jen Simmons. Includes rough grungy texture across the entire piece.

Jen Schiffer:
var t;: Piet Mondrian

I started with Mondrian not because he is my favorite artist (he is not), or that his work is very recognizeable (it is), but because I thought it would be a fun (yes) and easy start (lol nope) to this project.

Mondrian Art in CSS randomized 12 times in a 4 by 3 grid of boxes. A bright yellow header is above the grid bearing the site title: var t.

Riley Wong:
Make Your Own Mondrian-Style Painting with Code

There is a 12-step tutorial on GitHub.

Adam Fuhrer:
CSS Mondrian

Generative Piet Mondrian style art using CSS grid.

Screenshot of a full page Mondrian art example. There is a refresh button centered at the bottom of the page.

John Broers:
CSS Mondriaan Grid

An example of Mondrian Art in CSS with a "Generate New" option. The example is a square box with plenty of padding around it on the white background page.

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