Piet Mondrian Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow 1937–42

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 519 The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries

Mondrian completed this painting in 1942, soon after he moved to Manhattan from London. Just as the crisscrossing roads of Broadacre City disperse its inhabitants across the landscape, the gridded lines of Mondrian’s composition distribute blocks of primary colors across the canvas. This similarity may be more than mere coincidence. The rectilinear, machine-made forms of Wright’s architecture had influenced the formation of De Stijl, a Dutch design movement advocating abstraction in the arts that counted Mondrian as a founding member.

Gallery label from 2024
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
23 3/4 x 21 7/8" (60.3 x 55.4 cm)
Credit
The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection
Object number
638.1967
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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Provenance Research Project

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Piet Mondrian, New York.
[Estate of Piet Mondrian (Harry Holtzman), New York]
By 1957, Lee A. Ault, New York.
1957 - 1967, Sidney Janis, New York, acquired from Lee Ault.
1967, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as gift from Sidney and Harriet Janis.

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