THE COLLECTION
Composition in Oval with Color Planes 1
Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872-1944)
1914. Oil on canvas, 42 3/8 x 31" (107.6 x 78.8 cm). Purchase
14.1950
2008
Mondrian moved from Holland to Paris in 1912, two years before he made this painting. The geometry of the composition is derived directly from the facades and remains of recently demolished apartments and refers to their exposed floors, walls, and chimneys. Having discarded naturalistic pictorial strategies, which, he contended, "obscure pure reality," Mondrian employed horizontal and vertical lines, believing they better expressed an unchanging, universal essence. This premise would fundamentally inform his artistic production throughout his career. While in Paris Mondrian regularly visited Pablo Picasso's studio. The oval that circumscribes this work was an unusual format used by Picasso at that time.
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