Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red

A white field is divided by black lines into a grid, with a few rectangles filled in pure red, blue, and yellow - nothing more, the composition reduced to the barest elements of line, plane, and primary color. Piet Mondrian spent decades refining this severe abstraction, which he called Neo-Plasticism, seeking a universal harmony of pure relationships. Now in the Tate, this Composition exemplifies his mature style - asymmetrical yet perfectly balanced, the warm and cool colors and the black grid held in dynamic equilibrium, an attempt to distill the underlying order of the universe itself.