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

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Find the one black line above the blue that runs all the way to the edge, then compare it with the lines that stop short and the tiny red corner near the bottom.

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Mondrian, a founder of De Stijl, said that “the straight line tells the truth,” yet here he turned a square canvas onto its point. Every line inside still runs level or upright, so the slanted edges pull against them. He liked to hang these diamond pictures well above eye level, and in 1921 and 1922 this one was offered for sale at Léonce Rosenberg’s gallery in Paris.

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Oil on canvas · 60 × 60 cm · Art Institute of Chicago · Modernism · De Stijl

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Details and source

Museum title
Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray
Artist
Piet Mondrian Dutch, 1872–1944
Date
1921
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60 × 60 cm (23 5/8 × 23 5/8 in.)
Credit line
Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.
Image license
CC0 1.0 · Public domain
Museum record
Art Institute of Chicago

Artist’s life 1872–1944

De Stijl c. 1917–1932

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Galler’s rooms and hanging scale are imagined. The image is the museum’s original digital reproduction.

Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray · Piet Mondrian, 1921
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Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray, Piet Mondrian

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