With the complete detachment from natural forms and colours in the 1920s, the Dutchman Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, whose oeuvre includes the best-known creations of geometric abstraction. In search of balance, Mondrian embedded squares of primary and non-colours in a latticework of black lines.
See also: Piet Mondrian: Abstract Geometry on Canvas
Mondrian, who was then living in Paris, created almost 120 works in this style between 1921 and 1933, with only 17 of them focusing on the colour red. These most famous compositions by the important painter, art theorist and co-founder of the De Stijl artists' association can mainly be found in museum collections. Only three are privately owned, and now one of these three will return to the Sotheby's auction room on 14 November, where it will be the star of the Modern Evening Auction in New York.
It has been almost 40 years since Composition No. II of 1930, which shows Mondrian at the height of his maturity, last went under the hammer. In 1983, the work set a record for Piet Mondrian at Sotheby's, selling for $2 million (£1.8 million). This has since been surpassed several times, most recently in 2015 when Composition No. III, with Red, Blue, Yellow and Black from 1929, changed hands at Christie's for £32.9 million.
See also: 6 Iconic Dutch Paintings
Composition No. II is expected to exceed $50 million, potentially repeating its 1983 success and becoming Mondrian's most expensive work in auction history.
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“Quintessential works by Piet Mondrian rarely come to auction as many are housed in the most prestigious museum collections around the world," explains Julian Dawes, Sotheby's Head of Impressionist & Modern Art, Americas, in a press release. "Composition No. II embodies everything you could want from a Mondrian – it is a seminal painting that is both crucial to the development of Modern art and emblematic of the enduring appeal of the Modern aesthetic, characterised by a serene sense of compositional balance and spatial order, and with superb provenance. On his path towards abstraction, Mondrian reached an epiphany with the works he created at the peak of his career. The opportunity to acquire a painting of this quality is truly a once-in-a-generation occurrence.”
