Counter composition XV 1925

Theo van Doesburg built this painting out of rectangles and squares, mostly in black, but disrupted by a yellow, blue, and red rectangle. I like to imagine him making this, stepping back, and thinking about how to upset the apple cart, so to speak. How to make it sing? I'm thinking about that black ground: what kind of black is that? Is it matte, is it shiny? You know, black isn't just black. It does things. Anyway, back to van Doesburg. He’s working in a period where lots of artists are trying to figure out what painting is, and what it could be. De Stijl painters like van Doesburg are in dialogue with Mondrian, but also El Lissitzky and others, who are using geometry and primary colors to make their point. And that point is? Well, it’s not just decoration, it’s about rethinking the world. It’s about trying to start over and seeing the world through new eyes. It's about the push and pull between the figure and ground, and the energy that creates.