Composition XX 1920

This is Theo van Doesburg's ‘Composition XX’, made with oil on canvas. I can just picture Van Doesburg figuring things out through painting, moving these blocks of color around, shifting them, and landing on this particular composition. You know, like when you're in the studio and you're trying to find a balance? It's a bunch of rectangles and squares, mostly red, yellow, and blue, with some black, white, and gray thrown in. The paint looks pretty smooth, no crazy texture, but the way he puts these colors together, it's not just about making something that looks cool. It's more like he's asking, 'How do we make sense of the world?' There’s something about the way these colors bump up against each other that reminds me of Mondrian's work, but somehow it has its own feeling. Like they are having a conversation.