1939
tempera
paper
From the collection of Museum of Modern Art
Dominant colour
Untitled is a 1939 tempera by E. McKnight Kauffer, held at Museum of Modern Art.
This painting is all sharp edges and bold colors. There’s a big black circle on top of a brown square, with a white circle inside a triangle below it. To the right, a red triangle leans against a peach shape, and a yellow triangle sits at the bottom left. The lines are clean, and the colors don’t mix—just flat blocks of red, yellow, brown, and white. The artist used a mix of paint and glue (tempera) to keep the colors bright and the shapes crisp. It feels like a puzzle, but there’s no "right" way to look at it. Check out how artists used tempera for its matte, precise finish.
Edward McKnight Kauffer was an American artist and graphic designer who lived for much of his life in the United Kingdom. He worked mainly in poster art, but was also active as a painter, book illustrator and theatre designer.
See the richer artist page
