{"data":{"id":109819,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/109819","is_boosted":true,"title":"Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAFAPQAAFlUMJeYn4WQrKeuveDWks3Lt8bJy8nKys3OzsXJ0s3Q2NXW0Nna1+ro3uLk5eTl5unp5+Xm6enq6urq6u3s6e3t7e\/u7PLx7+zs8AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAFAAUAAAUVIPYw0tQQi0MVwDEIUWAkSmUh0BUCADs=","width":6578,"height":6578,"alt_text":"A square white tile, rotated 90 degrees, crossed by black lines intersecting at 90-degree angles. A few of the shapes thus formed\u2014some partial squares, some rectangles\u2014are colored in a single shade of yellow, blue, black, or red."},"main_reference_number":"1957.307","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1921,"date_end":1921,"date_display":"1921","date_qualifier_title":"","date_qualifier_id":null,"artist_display":"Piet Mondrian\nDutch, 1872\u20131944","place_of_origin":"Netherlands","description":"<p>Piet Mondrian, a painter of the revolutionary international movement De Stijl (the Style), argued that \"the straight line tells the truth.\" Why, then, we might wonder, would he choose to hang a painting off axis, where its edges imply dynamic diagonals? Among other motivations, rotating the canvas allowed Mondrian to reconsider a question he spent his career exploring, namely, the relationship between the contents of a painting and what contains them. In <em>Lozenge Composition<\/em>, the squared-off black lines imply enclosure, while a single line (above the blue area) extends to the slanted edge, suggesting extension beyond the canvas. This implication of what might lie beyond also prompted Mondrian to invoke the full expanse of the wall by hanging diagonal paintings well above eye level.<\/p>\n","short_description":"Piet Mondrian, a founding member of the international movement De Stijl (the Style), said \u201cthe straight line tells the truth.\u201d Deceptively simple, his works are the result of continual tinkering to achieve absolute balance and harmony. In this work, Mondrian rotated a square canvas 90 degrees to create a dynamic relationship between the rectilinear composition and the diagonal lines of the painting's edges.","dimensions":"60 \u00d7 60 cm (23 5\/8 \u00d7 23 5\/8 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":60,"height":60,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":"Signed, l.c.: \"PM\/21\"","credit_line":"Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Henry McBride, \u201cRockefeller, Whitney, Senior, Odets, Colin,\u201d Art News 50 (June\/August 1951), 34 ff. (ill.). \n\nMichel Seuphor, Piet Mondrian: Life and Work (New York, 1956), p. 392, no. 400.\n\nOttavio Morisani, L\u2019Abstrattismo die Piet Mondrian (Venice, 1956), no. 66.\n\nThe Art Institute, Paintings of the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 1961), pp. 317, 342 (ill.).\nCarlo L. Ragghianti, Mondrian e l\u2019arte del XX secolo (Milan, 1962), 334, no. 568.\n\nEl Mundo de Los Museos, Instituto de Arte de Chicago (Madrid, 1967), 79 (ill.).\n\nL\u2019Opera completa di Mondrian, Classici dell\u2019Arte 77 (Milan, 1974), 108, no. 336.\n\nA. James Speyer and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth-Century European Paintings (Chicago, 1980), p. 58, no. 3A6.\n\nImpressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture (Part I) (New York: Christie's, Tuesday, May 15, 1990), 152.\n\nJohn Milner, Piet Mondrian (London, 1992), 164-165 (ill.).\n\nCarel Blotkamp, Mondrian: The Art of Destruction (London, 1994), pl. 131.\n\nJames N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth-Century Painting and Sculpture (Chicago, 1996), 49 (ill.).\n\nBriony Fer, On Abstract Art (New Haven, 1996), 50-52 (ill.).\n\nJoop M. Joosten, Piet Mondrian: Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9 of the Work of 1911-1944 (New York, 1998), no. B127, 48 (ill.), 295.\n\nJames N. Wood, Treasures from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, 2000), 259 (ill.).\n\nMatthew S. Witkovsky and Devin Fore, ed. Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Text. Exh. Cat. Art Institute of Chicago, 2017, 312, cat. 540.\n\nAndreas Beitin and Ren\u00e9 Zechlin, Re-Inventing Piet. Mondrian and the Consequences, exh. cat. (Wolfsburg, Germany: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2023), 260 (color ill.).\n\nJames Rondeau, Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2025), 113 (color ill.).","exhibition_history":"Hartford, Wadsworth Atheneum, Abstract Art: Gabo Pevsner Mondrian Domela, 1935.\n\nAmsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Piet Mondrian, November-December 1946, no. 110; traveled to Basel, Kunsthalle, February 6-March 2, 1947, no. 13.\n\nNew York, Museum of Modern Art, Selections from Five New York Private Collections, Summer 1951.\n\nNew York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Piet Mondrian, February 5-March 17, 1951, no. 21. \n\nChicago, Art Institute, Mondrian: The Process Works, October 3-November 8, 1970, no. 5.\n\nWashington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Mondrian: The Diamond Compositions, July 1-September 16, 1979, no.5.\n\nHaags, Gemeentemuseum, Piet Mondrian, December 18, 1994-April 30, 1995; traveled to Washington, National Gallery of Art, June 11-September 4, 1995, and New York, Museum of Modern Art, October 1, 1995-January 23, 1996, cat. no. 95 (ill.).\n\nChicago, Terra Museum of American Art, A Transatlantic Avant-Garde: American Artists in Paris, 1918\u20131939, April 17\u2013June 27, 2004.\n\nThe Art Institute of Chicago, Henri Cartier-Bresson and the Art and Photography of Paris, September 20, 2008\u2013January 4, 2009.\n\nParis, Centre Pompidou, Mus\u00e9e National d'art moderne, Mondrian, December 1, 2010\u2013March 21, 2011, p. 223.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Revoliutsiia! Demonstratsiia! Soviet Art Put to the Test, October 29, 2017\u2013January 15, 2018, cat. 540.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Andr\u00e9 Kert\u00e9sz: Postcards from Paris, Oct. 2, 2021\u2013Jan. 17, 2022, not in cat.; Atlanta, High Museum of Art, Feb. 18\u2013May 29, 2022 (Chicago only).","provenance_text":"Consigned to Galerie de \u201cL\u2019Effort Moderne\u201d (L\u00e9once Rosenberg), Paris, 1921-22. Jakob von Domselaer and Maaike von Domselaer-Middelkoop, Bergen, the Netherlands, 1922(?)-1940\/45. John R\u00e4decker, Groet, the Netherlands, 1940\/45-c. 1948. John L. Senior, Jr., New York, by 1949-1956 [letter from Sidney Janis Gallery in curatorial file]. Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1956. Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., New York, March 1, 1957; given to the Art Institute, 1957.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":246,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":true,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":32.8709,"color":{"h":56,"l":60,"s":93,"percentage":0.0008442986622087696,"population":6},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 393","gallery_id":23991,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Modern Art","department_id":"PC-11","artist_id":17549,"artist_title":"Piet Mondrian","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[17549],"artist_titles":["Piet Mondrian"],"category_ids":["PC-11","PC-831"],"category_titles":["Modern Art","Essentials"],"term_titles":["oil on canvas","oil painting","oil paint (paint)","geometric","Modernism","painting (image making)","canvas","yellow (color)","black (color)","blue (color)","grids","painting","Modern Art Highlights","white (color)","red (color)","squares"],"style_id":"TM-5981","style_title":"Modernism","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-5981"],"style_titles":["Modernism"],"classification_id":"TM-66","classification_title":"oil on canvas","alt_classification_ids":["TM-9","TM-14404"],"classification_ids":["TM-66","TM-9","TM-14404"],"classification_titles":["oil on canvas","painting","Modern Art Highlights"],"subject_id":"TM-9124","alt_subject_ids":["TM-11842","TM-11845","TM-11843","TM-12518","TM-11841","TM-11851","TM-12654"],"subject_ids":["TM-9124","TM-11842","TM-11845","TM-11843","TM-12518","TM-11841","TM-11851","TM-12654"],"subject_titles":["geometric","yellow (color)","black (color)","blue (color)","grids","white (color)","red (color)","squares"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-3124"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-3124"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","canvas"],"technique_id":"TM-4273","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3891"],"technique_ids":["TM-4273","TM-3891"],"technique_titles":["oil painting","painting (image making)"],"theme_titles":["Essentials"],"image_id":"25f660ee-f1db-d13b-42a5-56df97c98ba7","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1957.307"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray"],"weight":30736,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-07-14T15:41:08-05:00","updated_at":"2026-08-31T13:47:34-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-01T18:58:28-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.15"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}