Lozenge: Color Planes with Gray Lines by Piet Mondrian

Lozenge: Color Planes with Gray Lines, signed in the bottom center and dated 1919, was probably done while Mondrian was still in the Netherlands, before his return to Paris. According to the municipal register in Laren, he was in residence there until July 14 of at year. Along with several works bearing the date 1918, the painting belongs to a series compositionally based on a geometrical subdivision. By the introduction of a subtle qualitative balance, however, this basic geometrical pattern has resulted in a newly free and harmonious composition.

In Lozenge: Color Planes with Gray Lines, the geometrical division of he square into a checkerboard of 8x8 small squares is till clearly visible. In a way, the subdivision may be said to act like the scanning of a musical composition into measures, with the rhythm and the melody flowing over them, undisturbed but not unnoticed. The tension between measure and rhythm constitutes a large part of the charm of his painting. The rhythmical effect here, farther-reaching than in the versions in The Hague and Philadelphia, is supported by an accentuation of the rectangles thus formed by means of differences in gentle subdued hues. In the last analysis, however, this painting is an experiment in form, going back in a sense to the 1917.