Composition in Brown and Gray
Piet Mondrian
Dutch, 1872–1944
1913
An oil on canvas in which Mondrian pares forms down to a network of interlocking brown and gray rectangles outlined in black, testing how rhythm, balance, and subtle tonal shifts can stand in for recognizable subject matter.
You see a compact, maze‑like field of ochres and muted grays framed by dark contour lines, whose textured brushwork and repeated verticals and horizontals make the surface feel at once architectural and subtly animated.
Executed as he moved from Cubist influence toward purer geometry, this work helped open the path to Mondrian’s later neoplastic grids and the broader 20th‑century pursuit of pure abstraction.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
33 3/4 x 29 3/4" (85.7 x 75.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Purchase
Accession
242.1950
Palette
Exhibitions
