Rautenkomposition mit zwei Linien

Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg founded De Stijl together and then fell out over a line. In the mid-1920s Van Doesburg began tilting his compositions to 45 degrees and arguing that the diagonal was the livelier axis. Mondrian held that upright and level were the only two directions worth using, and he left the group over it. Van Doesburg died of a heart attack in March 1931, at 47. Mondrian painted this the same year, in a format he had been using since 1918, which let him tilt the canvas while every line inside it stayed strictly horizontal or vertical. There are only two of them. The square measures 80 centimetres on a side, so the diamond stands about 112 centimetres from point to point, and the Stedelijk keeps it in a case because the cadmium paints he used are fragile.