Composition (No. 1) Gray-Red

After World War I, many artists, including Piet Mondrian, believed that abstract art could contribute to a more harmonious society by communicating in a universal visual language. In 1917 Mondrian joined the De Stijl movement, which sought to develop a new aesthetic that corresponded to their utopian vision, and began developing his distictive style: compositions of off-white grounds divided by black lines that framed blocks of primary colors.