Cleveland Museum of Art

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue

Piet Mondrian

Date

1927

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

Netherlands

Department

Modern European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

During the 1910s, Piet Mondrian’s art progressed from Cubism to an increasingly abstract style based on the form of a grid. He completely abandoned the representation of natural appearances, limiting himself to horizontal and vertical rectangles and three primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) along with black and white. Intensely intellectual and deeply philosophical, Mondrian believed that following the devastation of World War I, such abstract compositions could contribute to a more harmonious society by communicating in a universal, visual language. The small strip of wood around the outside of the canvas, painted the same gray as the canvas surface, is Mondrian’s original frame for the painting.

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