Composition with Oval in Color Planes II 1914

Piet Mondrian made this painting, Composition with Oval in Color Planes II, with oil on canvas. Just look at the way the planes float in space within the oval! I see pinks, blues, yellows and greys, held together by a strong black grid. There's something playful, even whimsical, about the pastel hues that seem to want to escape those very determined black lines. I imagine Mondrian puzzling over each line, each colour block, trying them out in different arrangements to see what might happen. There's something so orderly, so considered about the composition, yet the colours give it a lightness and delicacy. You see those letters? U and B? Maybe he was thinking about words. Maybe he was thinking about sounds. Maybe he was thinking about the city. It reminds me of the way a jazz musician might improvise around a simple melody, exploring all the possibilities within a set of rules. Mondrian was always trying to distill painting to its purest essence, and in this work, he found a beautiful balance between order and freedom.