Piet Mondrian
Dutch, 1872-1944

To achieve what he believed to be pure images of absolute harmony, Piet Mondrian painted non-representational compositions of rectangular shapes, straight lines, and primary colors. Mondrian believed his style expressed the unity and order possible in nature when the forces of opposition that constitute the real dynamic of existence are balanced. In this painting he dramatically balances the red rectangle at the upper left of this composition with narrow yellow, blue, and black rectangles in the lower right corner. White dominates the canvas and the gridlike black lines that serve as boundaries to the color planes stop short of the canvas edges, creating spatial ambiguities regarding projection and recession.

Oil on canvas, 1922
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1978.44
© 1922 Piet Mondrian