Who painted Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue?

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue was painted by Piet Mondrian in 1927-01-01.

Where can I see Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue?

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue is held by Cleveland Museum of Art.

What movement is Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue?

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue is associated with De Stijl.

Artwork

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue

Piet Mondrian , 1927

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue is an oil painting by the De Stijl artist Piet Mondrian. It dates from 1927 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

About this work

Technique & Style

The painting’s formal qualities foreground balance, rhythm, and dynamic equilibrium through the interplay of geometric forms and limited chromatic palette.

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue is an oil painting on canvas executed by Piet Mondrian in 1927. The work measures 49.5 by 49.5 cm and was created in the Netherlands.

The composition exemplifies the artist’s mature neoplastic style, characterized by hard-edged black grid lines that structure the surface into asymmetrical rectangles. Primary colors, red, yellow, and blue, are applied in flat, unmodulated fields, along with smaller areas of white, gray, and black. The handling emphasizes precision and clarity, with sharp contours delineating each color zone.

The painting’s formal qualities foreground balance, rhythm, and dynamic equilibrium through the interplay of geometric forms and limited chromatic palette.

History & Provenance

The work was created in 1927 by Piet Mondrian in the Netherlands, as documented by its inception date and place of creation.

It entered the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art, where it has been held since acquisition as object number 1967.215. The painting’s dimensions are 49.5 cm in height and 49.5 cm in width.

Piet Mondrian's Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue (1927) is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. The work is cataloged under the accession number 1967.215. It was created using oil paint on canvas in the Netherlands.

The painting measures 49.5 cm in both height and width. The provided sources do not list specific exhibition histories for this work.

Overview

Created by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian in 1927, Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue exemplifies his distinctive abstract style. Rendered in oil paint, this work is a key example of the De Stijl movement, which sought universal harmony through geometric forms and primary colors. The painting is now held in the collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art, representing a significant period in 20th-century abstraction.

Subject & Meaning

As an abstract work, Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue does not depict recognizable objects or scenes. Instead, it embodies Mondrian's pursuit of universal aesthetic principles through the reduction of art to its fundamental elements: line, form, and color. This approach, central to the De Stijl movement, aimed to express an underlying order and harmony, suggesting a spiritual or ideal reality beyond the visible world.

Context

This painting emerged from Piet Mondrian's extensive theoretical work and his artistic journey from early figurative landscapes to radical abstraction. It stands as a prime example of De Stijl, a Dutch art movement he co-founded, which advocated for a new aesthetic based on strict geometric principles and a limited palette. The movement sought to integrate art into life, believing that universal harmony could be achieved through such purified forms.

Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, Piet Mondrian

Artist & collection

Artist

Piet Mondrian

Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (Dutch:; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, US also; Dutch: ), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician, who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.