The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 30, 2023

Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue

1927

Piet Mondrian

(Dutch, 1872–1944)

Netherlands

Oil on canvas

Framed: 62.2 x 62.6 x 10.8 cm (24 1/2 x 24 5/8 x 4 1/4 in.); Unframed: 49.5 x 49.5 cm (19 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.)

Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1967.215

Location

223 20th Century Avant-Garde

Fun Fact

The small strip of wood around the outside of the canvas, painted the same gray as the canvas surface, is Mondrian’s original frame for the painting.

Description

Piet Mondrian cofounded the De Stijl movement of art and design, which is characterized by simplified compositions, primary colors, and right angles that define spatial relationships. A devoted advocate of jazz, Mondrian frequently linked his works to music through their titles. He completed this canvas in Paris just before beginning his series based on the fox-trot.

Inscriptions

Inscription

signed lower center: P M '27

Provenance
J. J. P. Oud, Wassenaar (1955). (E. V. Thaw).
Citations
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 198 archive.org
Cleveland Museum of Art. Art of the Twentieth Century in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: Dept. of Art History & Education, CMA, 1969. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 2 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 249 archive.org
Henning, Edward B. Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Published by the Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1987. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 122, no. 30
Foster, Carter, "A Drawing by Myron Stout", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 42 no. 02, February 2002 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6-7 archive.org
Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 64-65, fig. 12
Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 300
Gemeentemuseum ('s-Gravenhage). Mondriaan. 1955.
Janssen, Hans. Mondrian & De Stijl. Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2020. Reproduced: P. 163
Exhibition history

Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, France (12/1/2010 - 3/21/2011): "Mondrian / De Stijl"Mondrian", p. 236.

Year in Review: 1968. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 29-March 9, 1969).

Mondrian Retrospective. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (October 7-December 12, 1971); Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland (January 26-March 26, 1972).

Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987).

L'art aux Pays-Bas au XXeme siecle. Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (organizer) (March 23-July 18, 1994).

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).

Mondrian / De Stijl . Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris cedex O4, France (organizer) (December 1, 2010-March 21, 2011).

The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, New York, NY (April 7-August 20, 2017); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 30, 2017-January 14, 2018).

Mondrian and De Stijl. Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofÍa, Madrid, Spain (organizer) (November 10, 2020-March 1, 2021) https://www.museoreinasofia.es/exposiciones/mondrian-stijl.

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1967.215