Composition (No. 1) Gray-Red
1935
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
57.5 × 55.6 cm (22 5/8 × 21 7/8 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Modern Art
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
65821
Art Historical Context
Piet Mondrian's *Composition (No. 1) Gray-Red* (1935) exemplifies the Dutch artist's revolutionary approach to abstraction. Painted in oil on canvas, this compact work measures 57.5 × 55.6 cm and belongs to the Art Institute of Chicago's Modern Art collection. Mondrian, a pioneer of the De Stijl movement, sought to distill art to its purest essence through geometric forms, horizontal and vertical black lines, and planes of color—here, dominated by subtle grays and reds rather than his signature primaries. Created during Mondrian's Paris years amid the rise of European modernism, the painting ...