Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray
1921
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60 × 60 cm (23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Modern Art
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
109819
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Piet Mondrian, a painter of the revolutionary international movement De Stijl (the Style), argued that "the straight line tells the truth." Why, then, we might wonder, would he choose to hang a painting off axis, where its edges imply dynamic diagonals? Among other motivations, rotating the canvas allowed Mondrian to reconsider a question he spent his career exploring, namely, the relationship between the contents of a painting and what contains them. In Lozenge Composition, the squared-off blac...
About the Artist
Piet Mondrian · 1872–1944
**Piet Mondrian** (born Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944) was a Dutch painter and theoretician who became one of the most influential figures in 20th-century abstract art. Born in Amersfoort, Netherlands, as the second of his parents’ children, he grew up in a creative household; his father was a qualified drawing teacher and headmaster, while his uncle, Frits Mondriaan, a...