Tableau No. IV; Lozenge Composition with Red, Gray, Blue, Yellow, and Black
c. 1924/1925
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall (diamond): 142.8 x 142.3 cm (56 1/4 x 56 in.) framed: 150.8 x 150.5 x 6.3 cm (59 3/8 x 59 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CMC
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Herbert and Nannette Rothschild
Accession Number
1971.51.1
Art Historical Context
Piet Mondrian’s *Tableau No. IV; Lozenge Composition with Red, Gray Blue, Yellow, and* (c. 1924/192) exemplifies the artist’s mature exploration of neoplasticism, the movement he helped pioneer through the Dutch group De Stijl. Painted in oil on canvas, the work is presented as a diamond-shaped lozenge, rotated forty degrees so that its corners point toward the cardinal directions. Thick black lines intersect across the surface, dividing it into rectangles and squares that are filled with the primary colors Mondrian favored, along with neutral gray and black. This format was not merely decora...