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

Artist Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872-1944)

Date1922

DimensionsPainting: 16 1/2 × 19 1/8 in. (41.9 × 48.6 cm)
Frame: 17 1/2 × 19 1/2 × 2 in. (44.5 × 49.5 × 5.1 cm)
Plexi Box: 22 1/8 × 24 5/8 × 2 1/2 in. (56.2 × 62.5 × 6.4 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1978.44

Not on View

Label Text“Every true artist has been inspired more by the beauty of lines and color and the relationships between them than by the concrete subject of the picture.” —Piet Mondrian Dominated by a large white square surrounded by small color planes that extend to the edges of the canvas, Composition with Red, Blue, Yellow, Black, and Gray expresses Piet Mondrian’s desire to balance opposing forces by concentrating on the subtle relationship between lines, shapes, and colors. Here, he balances the red rectangle at the upper left with narrow yellow, blue, and black rectangles in the lower right corner. The grid-like, black lines that serve as boundaries to the color planes stop short of the canvas edges, creating spatial ambiguities of projection and recession. Mondrian believed his nonrepresentational style, which he called Neoplasticism, expressed the unity and order possible in nature when opposing forces are in balance. He hoped his images of absolute harmony, clarity, and order would point the way toward a future universal utopia.Published ReferencesSeuphor, Michel; Piet Mondrian Life and Work, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1957?, no. 474, p. 427, illus. p. 385, cc no. 325.

"News & notes," Umbrella, vol. 2, no. 3, May 1979, p. 69.

"1978 Annual Report,"Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 21, no. 1, 1979, p. 7, repr. p. 15.

"Arte Oggi," Bolaffi Art, vol. 10, no. 88, Apr.-May 1979, p. 57.

"For the record," Art Gallery, vol. 22, no. 4, May 1979, p. 43.

"Acquistions of twentieth-century art by museum," Burlington, vol. 122, no. 928, July 1980, p. 529, repr. fig. 108.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treaures, Toledo, 1995, p. 165., repr. (col.).

Lamm, Rober C., The humanities in Western culture, 10th edition, Madison, 1996, vol. 2, p. 374, fig. 28.17 (col.).

Joosten, Joop M., Piet Mondrian: catalogue raisonne, New York, 1998, vol. 2, no. B 137, p. 301, repr. p. 51 (col.).

Ocvirk, Otto G., et. al., Art fundamentals: theory and practice, 9th ed., Boston, McGraw Hill, 2001, p. 9, fig. 1.6 (col.).

Donald Judd: 50x100x50, 100x100x50, New York, Pace Wildenstein, 2002, p. 13, fig. 8 (col.).

Bax, Marty, Complete Mondrian, Aldershot, Lund Humphried, 2001, repr. (col.) p. 223 and (b. & w.) p. 504.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 313, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryGravenhage, Dienst Voor Schone Kunsten's, Piet Mondrian, Oct. - Nov. 1955.

Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, De Stijl 1917-1931; Visions of Utopia, 1982, no. 206.

Amsterdam, Stedelijk, Otterlo, Jrjksmuseum Kroller-Muller, De Stijl 1917-1931, 1982, no. 284.

Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum, 1982.

Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kroller-Muller, 1982-83.

Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Washington, National Gallery of Art; New York, Museum of Modern Art, Piet Mondrian, 1994-1996, no. 103, p. 44, 211, 347, repr. (col.) p. 211.

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 165, repr. (col.).

New York, Pace Wildenstein, Mondrian, Reinhardt: influence and affinity, 1997, no. 28, repr. (col.).