Counter composition VII 1924

Theo van Doesburg made this painting called Counter-composition VII with oil on canvas, though it feels more like design than painting, doesn't it? Look at the way he builds up the surface, how the paint is flat and even. There’s no visible brushwork, no impasto – just pure color, geometry and line. The whole composition is a square turned on its head into a diamond. The colors are all primaries and neutrals; yellow, blue, red, black, white. Each shape is carefully considered in relation to the others. It reminds me of a game or a puzzle, but one with no solution. That off-white square in the middle, that anchors everything. It’s not a perfect white, but a warm, slightly dirty white that gives the painting a grounded feel. It's like van Doesburg is saying, "Yes, I’m making a geometric abstraction, but I’m also making a painting with a material presence." It’s this tension between the ideal and the real that makes the work so compelling for me. It's hard to not see Mondrian here, someone he had close ties with. It’s a dialogue, a conversation about what it means to make abstract art.