Composition with Oval in Color Planes II 1914

Piet Mondrian made this painting, Composition with Oval in Color Planes II, with oil on canvas. Mondrian’s canvases are so concerned with surfaces; and the way those colours sit next to each other, singing or screaming. Here, he’s working with a pastel palette of pinks and blues, yellows and whites, the canvas a playground for right angles and sharp lines. This isn’t just a painting; it’s a record of the artist’s process, his way of seeing and ordering the world. Notice the thinness of the paint, the way it’s been scrubbed into the canvas, almost like a fresco. Then, there’s those blacks lines: they’re not quite perfect, are they? They waver and wobble, adding a kind of human touch to all those hard edges. Look at the top left corner, where the yellow bleeds slightly into the grey of the background. It’s moments like these that really get me going; they remind me that art is always about imperfection, about embracing the unexpected. Mondrian makes me think of Agnes Martin, another artist who wasn’t afraid to pare things down to their essence. Both artists remind us that art is a conversation, a constant back-and-forth between the artist and the world.