Composition No.10 1942

This artwork, "Composition No.10," was painted by Piet Mondrian, using oil paint. I really feel for Mondrian, I mean imagine reducing your palette down to black, white, primary colors, and then trying to make something interesting! It is as if he has set himself a problem that he must solve through painting. He starts with a white canvas and then, one by one, painstakingly adds those black lines and squares of color. It’s so matter-of-fact, yet still kind of playful. He has a specific vision, but within that, he allows himself to explore different compositional arrangements. The blue rectangle up in the top left feels almost daring! It’s the anchor point for the whole composition. The surface of the paint looks quite flat, no brushstrokes or texture. That is part of the point; that the idea is more important than the hand. I wonder if he was listening to jazz when he made this? I bet he was. Artists are always learning from each other, like in a game of telephone through history. It’s about pushing ideas forward and seeing what happens next.