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

A square white tile, rotated 90 degrees, crossed by black lines intersecting at 90-degree angles. A few of the shapes thus formed—some partial squares, some rectangles—are colored in a single shade of yellow, blue, black, or red.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A square white tile, rotated 90 degrees, crossed by black lines intersecting at 90-degree angles. A few of the shapes thus formed—some partial squares, some rectangles—are colored in a single shade of yellow, blue, black, or red.

Date:

1921

Artist:

Piet Mondrian
Dutch, 1872–1944

About this artwork

Piet Mondrian, a painter of the revolutionary international movement De Stijl (the Style), argued that “the straight line tells the truth.” Why, then, we might wonder, would he choose to hang a painting off axis, where its edges imply dynamic diagonals? Among other motivations, rotating the canvas allowed Mondrian to reconsider a question he spent his career exploring, namely, the relationship between the contents of a painting and what contains them. In Lozenge Composition, the squared-off black lines imply enclosure, while a single line (above the blue area) extends to the slanted edge, suggesting extension beyond the canvas. This implication of what might lie beyond also prompted Mondrian to invoke the full expanse of the wall by hanging diagonal paintings well above eye level.

Status

On View, Gallery 393

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Piet Mondrian

Title

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

Place

Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1921

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Signed, l.c.: "PM/21"

Dimensions

60 × 60 cm (23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.

Reference Number

1957.307

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/109819/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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