Artwork
Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray

Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray is an oil painting by the De Stijl artist Piet Mondrian. It dates from 1921 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
This painting is called Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray. It's an abstract work, which means it doesn't depict realistic objects. The artist, Piet Mondrian, created it in 1921 using oil paint, and it's now held at the Art Institute of Chicago, which is also a great place to learn more about similar artworks, like those using the technique of chiaroscuro.
Overview
Piet Mondrian’s 1921 oil painting titled Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray exemplifies his mature abstract language. Executed within the De Stijl framework, the work arranges flat planes of primary colour and black against a gray field, forming a balanced geometric configuration that eschews representational content.
Subject & Meaning
The composition conveys Mondrian’s pursuit of a universal visual order, reducing visual experience to essential elements of line, colour, and proportion. By privileging primary hues and stark contrasts, the painting reflects his belief in a harmonious, utopian aesthetic that transcends individual subjectivity.
Technique & Style
Rendered in oil on canvas, the piece employs precise, hard‑edged rectangles and squares that intersect at right angles. Mondrian’s palette is limited to yellow, blue, red, black and gray, while the surface is treated uniformly, emphasizing flatness and the logical rigor characteristic of De Stijl abstraction.
History & Provenance
Created during a pivotal period when Mondrian shifted from figurative work to pure abstraction, the painting entered the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection, where it remains accessible to the public. Its acquisition underscores the museum’s commitment to representing key developments in early‑20th‑century modernism.
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Artist & collection
Artist
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.
















