Piet Mondrian was a Modernist painter who began painting using natural landscapes as his subject matter. However, he later experimented with Cubism, which in turn led him towards abstraction. From 1917 to 1944 and concurrent with the creation of his Neo-Plastic paintings, he explained his aesthetic principles of Neo-Plasticism in writings.
Among some of his well-known works include narrow palette compositions like ”Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow”, a geometric painting featuring colored squares and black lines; ”Broadway Boogie Woogie”, which aimed to express the chaotic coexistence of collective life; and ”Lozenge Composition With Four Primary Colors And Black”. This piece is composed using yellow, black, blue, red and gray blocks that are placed strategically – similar to a stained glass window – emphasizing shape and form as opposed to color.
The 1921 painting ”Lozenge Composition With Yellow, Black, Blue, Red And Gray” truly embodies the principles of Neo-Plasticism that Piet Mondrian set out on paper: simplicity with minimal color variation. Through his artwork’s pointed angles and repetitive shapes reminiscent of stained glass windows juxtaposed against deep gray plane backdrops, Piet Mondrian sought to bring order into chaos with each new composition that he created.
