Movement · 1908–1935

Cubism & Early Abstraction

Color leaves the object behind: first muted to grey and brown in Cubism, then reduced to primaries and pure fields.

Across 35 works, the colors are mostly brown (28%), white (17%) and gray (12%). On average the canvases are light, moderately saturated and warm. Signature colors, used far more here than across the collection: vivid red, white, cool white, silver and parchment.

Color print

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

• MG 206 silver 7.4% of canvas
• MG 171 bone 6.8% of canvas
• MG 205 white 6.4% of canvas
• MG 201 parchment 5.1% of canvas
• MG 223 soot 4.9% of canvas
• MG 013 vivid red 4.8% of canvas
• MG 222 charcoal 4.0% of canvas
• MG 204 cool white 3.6% of canvas
• MG 213 light grey 3.0% of canvas
• MG 212 pale grey 2.9% of canvas
• MG 172 oatmeal 2.8% of canvas
• MG 180 pale sand 2.3% of canvas
• MG 218 graphite 2.2% of canvas
• MG 215 grey 2.1% of canvas
• MG 177 dark taupe 2.1% of canvas
• MG 173 putty 2.1% of canvas

Measurements

Lightness

0.62

Contrast

0.54

Vividness

0.053

Warmth

+0.63

Complexity

193 cells

Hue range

0.48

Focus

0.07

Artists

• Hilma af Klint 1862–1944
• Wassily Kandinsky 1866–1944
• Piet Mondrian 1872–1944
• Kazimir Malevich 1879–1935
• Paul Klee 1879–1940
• Pablo Picasso 1881–1973
• Umberto Boccioni 1882–1916
• Theo van Doesburg 1883–1931
• Robert Delaunay 1885–1941
• Juan Gris 1887–1927

Works

• The Blue Rider, 1903
• Still Life with a Parrot, 1907
• The Ten Largest, No. 1, Childhood, 1907
• The Ten Largest, No. 2, Childhood, 1907
• The Ten Largest, No. 3, Youth, 1907
• The Ten Largest, No. 9, Old Age, 1907
• The Red Tree, 1909
• Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1910
• The City Rises, 1910
• Champs de Mars, the Red Tower, c. 1911
• The Street Enters the House, 1911
• Portrait of Pablo Picasso, 1912
• Composition VI, 1913
• Composition VII, 1913
• Dynamism of a Cyclist, 1913
• The Bottle of Anís del Mono, 1914
• Black Square (1915), 1915
• Man with a Pipe, 1915
• Red Square, 1915
• Card Players, 1916
• Suprematist Composition, 1916
• Composition IX, 1917
• Suprematist Composition: White on White, 1918
• Sumpflegende, 1919
• Villa R, 1919
• Angelus Novus, 1920
• Le Canigou, 1921
• Mother and Child, 1921
• Counter-Composition of Dissonances XVI, 1925
• Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1930
• The Red Armchair, 1931
• Rhythms, 1934
• Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942
• New York City, 1942
• Victory Boogie Woogie, 1942