Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue
Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872–1944)
1927
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 62.2 x 62.6 x 10.8 cm (24 1/2 x 24 5/8 x 4 1/4 in.); Unframed: 49.5 x 49.5 cm (19 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.)
- Culture
- Netherlands
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
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.
