Past Exhibition

Piet Mondrian: 1872-1944

This abstract, geometric painting has been tipped on one corner to create a diamond form rather than a square. The surface of the canvas is crisscrossed by an irregular grid of black lines running vertically and horizontally like offset ladders. The black lines create squares and rectangles of different sizes, and the width of the lines vary slightly. One complete square sits at the center of the composition and is painted white. Other rectangles are incomplete, their corners sliced by the edge of the canvas, and each is a different shade of white with hints of pale blue and gray. The black grid creates triangular forms where it meets the angled edge of the canvas in some places, and some of these are filled with flat areas of color. A tomato-red triangle is placed to the left of the top center point, and a vibrant yellow triangle is to the left of the lower center point. A black triangle is next to it at the bottom center, and a cobalt-blue triangle is situated just below the right point. The painting is signed with the artist’s initials at the lower center: “PM.”
Piet Mondrian, Tableau No. IV; Lozenge Composition with Red, Gray, Blue, Yellow, and Black, c. 1924/1925, oil on canvas, Gift of Herbert and Nannette Rothschild, 1971.51.1

Details

  • Dates

    -

  • Locations

    East Building, Upper Level and Mezzanine
This abstract, geometric painting has been tipped on one corner to create a diamond form rather than a square. The surface of the canvas is crisscrossed by an irregular grid of black lines running vertically and horizontally like offset ladders. The black lines create squares and rectangles of different sizes, and the width of the lines vary slightly. One complete square sits at the center of the composition and is painted white. Other rectangles are incomplete, their corners sliced by the edge of the canvas, and each is a different shade of white with hints of pale blue and gray. The black grid creates triangular forms where it meets the angled edge of the canvas in some places, and some of these are filled with flat areas of color. A tomato-red triangle is placed to the left of the top center point, and a vibrant yellow triangle is to the left of the lower center point. A black triangle is next to it at the bottom center, and a cobalt-blue triangle is situated just below the right point. The painting is signed with the artist’s initials at the lower center: “PM.”
Piet Mondrian, Tableau No. IV; Lozenge Composition with Red, Gray, Blue, Yellow, and Black, c. 1924/1925, oil on canvas, Gift of Herbert and Nannette Rothschild, 1971.51.1

Overview: This exhibition of 134 paintings and 37 drawings came from the Gallery's collection and from other public and private collections. Mondrian's artistic development was traced, focusing especially on the artist's work in the 1920s and his later transformation.

Organization: The exhibition was organized jointly by the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Curators were Angelica Zander Rudenstine, guest curator and art historian; Yve-Alain Bois, Joseph Pulitzer Jr. Professor of Modern Art at Harvard University; Hans Janssen, curator of the modern collection at Haags Gemeentemuseum; and John Elderfield, curator-at-large at the Museum of Modern Art. Mark Rosenthal, curator of 20th-century art at the National Gallery, coordinated the exhibition for the Gallery.

Sponsor: The exhibition was made possible by support from Heineken USA Incorporated and Shell Oil Company Foundation. Additional support was provided by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Attendance: 163,584

Catalog: Piet Mondrian, 1872-1944, by Yve-Alain Bois, Joop Joosten, Angelica Zander Rudenstine, and Hans Janssen. Milan: Leonardo Arte in association with the National Gallery of Art, 1994.

Other Venues:

  • Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 12/17/1994–04/30/1995
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York, 10/01/1995–01/23/1996

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