Cubism & Early Abstraction · 1872–1944 · Dutch

Piet Mondrian

From about 1920 Mondrian limited himself to red, yellow and blue, plus white, black and grey, set in a grid of straight lines. In New York his color broke loose again into the small colored blocks of Broadway Boogie Woogie.

Across 5 works, the colors are mostly white (36%), blue (22%) and red (16%). On average the canvases are light, vivid and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: vivid red, cool white, white, indigo blue and pale golden yellow.

Color print

The swatches covering most of these canvases, averaged over every work, dark to light.

• MG 013 vivid red 12.3% of canvas
• MG 204 cool white 11.9% of canvas
• MG 206 silver 11.6% of canvas
• MG 205 white 11.0% of canvas
• MG 041 pale golden yellow 4.8% of canvas
• MG 035 pale amber 4.5% of canvas
• MG 104 indigo blue 4.4% of canvas
• MG 106 blue 3.7% of canvas
• MG 040 pale golden yellow 3.3% of canvas
• MG 200 ivory 3.1% of canvas
• MG 212 pale grey 2.9% of canvas
• MG 019 scarlet red 2.6% of canvas
• MG 103 indigo blue 2.2% of canvas
• MG 111 indigo blue 2.1% of canvas
• MG 171 bone 2.0% of canvas
• MG 107 dark blue 1.7% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness

0.71

Contrast

0.52

Vividness

0.077

Warmth

+0.46

Complexity

185 cells

Hue range

0.44

Focus

0.13

Works

• The Red Tree, 1909
• Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930
• Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942
• New York City, 1942
• Victory Boogie Woogie, 1942