Art in Math

Composition with Large Red Plane, Yellow, Black, Gray, and Blue painting by Piet Mondrian 1921. (And below are two examples of the student interpretations)

Recently, I introduced my class to Piet Mondrian, a Dutch artist highlighted in the Eureka Math Squared curriculum.  This was an exciting lesson for my students and a happy reminder of an Innovamat lesson I was lucky to be a part of while in Barcelona, Spain in February 2023.

According to our Eureka Math Squared program “Piet Mondrian reduced his subjects to colorful geometric shapes”. His art is filled with  bold primary colors, black gridlines, and rectangular forms.  This style was the perfect entry point for discussing many Geometric concepts. When viewing Mondrian’s work, the students immediately connected his distinctive rectangles and squares to maps of the United States. One student excitedly suggested, “Mondrian’s art looks like the shapes of states on a map!” From there, they proposed using Mondrian-like designs to measure the perimeter of states, estimating and then calculating distances for fun comparisons.

This sparked a lively discussion, and art imitation project, about how real-world shapes (like state borders) can be simplified into geometric forms for analysis. Mondrian’s clean, precise lines transformed into an unexpected geography lesson, weaving together art, math, and social studies in one engaging activity as you can see in the student samples included here.

Student sample of states. This student reports this represents the state of Utah and surrounding states. Do you see it?

Meanwhile, another student created the Old City of Quebec in this scene. Can you see it?

Students’ interpretations highlighted the exciting overlaps between art and math. Through their insights, Mondrian’s art became not just an exercise in observation but a playful exploration of geography and measurement. The experiences demonstrated how art can remove the boundaries of a traditional math lesson, replacing them with an interdisciplinary approach that promotes critical thinking, joy, and creativity.The beauty of art lies in its ability to inspire interpretations as diverse as the students themselves. 

If you are interested in this you may also want to join my facebook group. You can find us at Amy’s Global