Balance

After the First World War, Mondriaan was convinced that an important role was reserved for art in the modern age. With his paintings, he aims to express a universal harmony through a balance between lines, colours and surfaces.

Primary colours

According to him, this balance can be visualized ‘in the clearest, most powerful way’ with expressive means that do not evoke a depiction. For that reason, in his work he uses only straight horizontal and vertical lines, the three primary colours red, yellow and blue and the non-colours white, black and grey.

Point of rest

In this Composition with red, yellow and blue, Mondriaan again seeks a balance. The large, white area in this canvas creates a point of rest. However, because it is not centrally placed and is surrounded by the three coloured areas, the composition appears anything but static. It is not limited by the size of the canvas, whereby the painting seems to continue beyond its boundaries.