Composition (The Cow) 1917

Theo van Doesburg made this drawing of a cow, called Composition (The Cow), with pencil on paper. It's a small work, only a few inches tall, but it feels monumental. The marks are searching, like he's trying to find the essence of 'cow-ness' through pure form. You can see the under-drawing where he's figuring things out. It's not about a realistic depiction but about the idea of a cow, distilled down to basic lines and shapes. Look at how the vertical lines create a sense of structure, while the horizontal marks add a feeling of grounding. The texture of the pencil on paper is raw and immediate, you can almost feel the artist's hand moving across the surface. It reminds me a bit of Mondrian’s work, another artist interested in reducing subjects to their most essential forms. Ultimately, it’s about seeing the world in a new way, reducing it and rebuilding it through art.