Composition in Black and Gray
Composition with Grid 4 (Lozenge)
Piet Mondrian, Dutch, 1872 - 1944
Date:
1919Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
23 5/8 x 23 11/16 inches (60 x 60.2 cm) Framed: 30 x 30 x 3 7/16 inches (76.2 x 76.2 x 8.7 cm)Curatorial Department:
European Painting
1950-134-151Credit Line:
The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950
1919Medium:
Oil on canvasDimensions:
23 5/8 x 23 11/16 inches (60 x 60.2 cm) Framed: 30 x 30 x 3 7/16 inches (76.2 x 76.2 x 8.7 cm)Curatorial Department:
European Painting
* Gallery 180, Modern and Contemporary Art, first floor
Accession Number:1950-134-151Credit Line:
The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1950
Label:
Inspired by Cubism, Mondrian moved away from the naturalism of his earlier landscape paintings and began to explore the possibilities of working with a grid pattern to define an entire painting. In this composition, narrow, diagonal lines map a network of diamonds while horizontal and vertical lines divide them into 256 triangles. A flickering optical illusion is created by lines of varying thickness that suggest rectangular and square compartments of different sizes.
Inspired by Cubism, Mondrian moved away from the naturalism of his earlier landscape paintings and began to explore the possibilities of working with a grid pattern to define an entire painting. In this composition, narrow, diagonal lines map a network of diamonds while horizontal and vertical lines divide them into 256 triangles. A flickering optical illusion is created by lines of varying thickness that suggest rectangular and square compartments of different sizes.
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Provenance
Purchased from the artist, through Marcel Duchamp as agent, by Louise and Walter C. Arensberg, Los Angeles, probably in 1936 [1]; gift to PMA, 1950. 1. See a letter by Mondrian of March 31, 1936 to Van den Briel, in which he mentions that he has been approached by Valentine Dudensing asking for exclusivity for America, and also that "Besides I got a request from someone here for photos of two earlier things I still have and a new one I am busy finishing. They will be sent and there is every chance of success; the photos came out well" (cited in Joop Joosten, Catalogue Raisonné, v. 2, p. 163). Joosten believes the request for photographs must have come indirectly (possibly through Duchamp in Paris?) from the Arensbergs in Hollywood, with one of the "earlier things" being this 1919 work, and the one he is busy "finishing" being "Composition" of 1936 (see PMA 1950-134-152). Already in 1933, Galka Scheyer had written to Mondrian from Hollywood, attempting to purchase on the Arensbergs' behalf two Mondrian paintings she had seen in his studio; however, as she reported to Hans Arp a few months later, Mondrian had already sold both paintings in question (letter to Mondrian August 31, 1933 and letter to Arp November 28, 1933 in Scheyer archive, Norton Simon Museum). Duchamp's own notes on the provenance of the Arensberg purchases for which he acted as agent, compiled long after the fact in 1951, record that "Composition in Black and Gray" was purchased "from the artist in 1937," and "Composition" "from the artist in 1938" (letter of Duchamp to Arensbergs, September 8, 1951, PMA, Arensberg Archives). However, supporting Joosten's view that the paintings were actually acquired at the same time is the fact that, as Joosten points out, the transport labels of the Lucien Lefebvre-Foinet company on the stretchers bear consecutive numbers (nos. 433 and 434).* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.