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