Cubism & Early Abstraction · 1930

Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow

Piet Mondrian 1872–1944

Composition II in Red, Blue, and Yellow (1930) by Piet Mondrian. Its palette is led by vivid red (#de2b23, 50%) and silver (#e7e6e5, 34%), with accents of soot, pale tan, dark sienna and pale golden yellow. Overall the canvas is light, vivid and warm.

Color note

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.

Palette

#de2b23 MG 013 vivid red 50.1% of canvas
#e7e6e5 MG 206 silver 33.9% of canvas
#025d9e MG 106 blue 5.1% of canvas
#0c1514 MG 223 soot 4.8% of canvas
#d0b8a0 MG 163 pale tan 2.8% of canvas
#402d2f MG 145 dark sienna 2.6% of canvas
#efdb6f MG 040 pale golden yellow 0.7% of canvas

Color families

Red 50%, White 34%, Black 5%, Blue 5%, Brown 4%

Measurements

Lightness: 0.68
Contrast: 0.68
Vividness: 0.118
Warmth: +0.89
Complexity: 157 cells
Hue range: 0.24
Focus: 0.23

Composition

55% of the visual weight is in the right half, 59% in the upper half. Symmetry 0.00 (how closely its shapes and edges mirror each other). 77% of the canvas is calm space. Half of the detail sits in 10% of the canvas. Measured from the image, not a rule the painter followed.

Details

Date: 1930
Medium: Oil on canvas
Genre: abstract art
Collection: Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich

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