Counter composition V 1924

Theo van Doesburg made Counter-Composition V with oil on canvas. I can imagine him playing with this idea of tilting the square, seeing it as a diamond, and then trying to balance it with other shapes. He would have been thinking about how to make a painting that felt stable but was also dynamic. The color palette is simple: red, yellow, blue, black, and white. The red diamond dominates, pushing against the edges, with the other colours responding to its pull. It makes me wonder, how much planning versus improvisation went into this? Was it all mapped out, or was he also letting the painting guide him? I see him in the studio pushing forms around and thinking about Mondrian, and how to both pay homage and depart from him. Painters are in an ongoing conversation, right? And with painting there are no fixed meanings, but a continuous state of becoming.