Before he began paring down the universe, in 1919, to panes of primary color; before he took part in the founding, in 1917, of De Stijl (“The Style”); the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian was living in the Netherlands and painting landscapes, portraits, and flowers—figurative works in which a sensitive eye will detect hints of the abstraction to come. The De Stijl movement was shaped by a philosophy Mondrian laid out in his essay “Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art,” published over 11 issues of De Stijl magazine. He posited that art should “ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and color.” Soon afterward the rectilinear modernism that propelled Mondrian to world renown began. In 1938, as fascism grew in Europe, Mondrian moved to New York City, where he lived out his final years creating masterpieces. In this exhibition, the development of his vision can be seen in paintings placed along the Guggenheim’s spiral ramp. —Elena Clavarino