Composition with Red

A geometric abstract painting by Piet Mondrian, organized as rectangular color fields separated by bold black lines, with a prominent red area.

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Piet Mondrian: A Dutch painter who developed a geometric abstract style known as neoplasticism. Mondrian made this painting as part of his search for a universal visual order.
Asymmetrical balance: Visual equilibrium produced by dissimilar elements arranged to balance one another. Unequal fields balance without mirroring across the canvas.
Theosophy: A religious-philosophical movement that seeks knowledge of underlying spiritual realities. Theosophical ideas informed Mondrian’s pursuit of harmony beyond natural appearances.
Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow: A 1930 Piet Mondrian painting of black grid lines and primary-color rectangles. It offers a compact, well-known comparison for Mondrian’s use of red within a grid.
Neoplasticism: Mondrian’s artistic theory of abstract composition using straight lines, rectangular forms, and primary colors. The painting applies neoplasticism’s restricted visual vocabulary.
Grid (visual arts): An arrangement of intersecting lines that divides a visual surface into cells. Black lines divide the canvas into a nonuniform rectangular structure.
Cubism: An early twentieth-century art movement that fragmented subjects into geometric forms and multiple viewpoints. Cubism helped move Mondrian from recognizable landscapes toward abstraction.
Broadway Boogie Woogie: A 1942–1943 painting by Piet Mondrian inspired by New York’s streets and music. Its fragmented, rhythmic grid contrasts with the broad color fields in this painting.
De Stijl: A Dutch artistic movement that pursued abstraction and harmony through geometric form and primary colors. The painting belongs to the movement’s broader visual and intellectual setting.
Negative space: The unoccupied or less visually prominent areas surrounding and between forms. The pale fields carry as much structural weight as the red area.