Moral Code
The painting is an arrangement of black lines, white voids, and color blocks. The lines are limited to horizontal and vertical directions while the colors are limited to red, blue, and yellow. Mondrian believed that cardinal directions and primary colors were universal elements which lead to a universal beauty of balanced contrasts and dynamic tension. Art was a moral code that through severity and austerity could produce beauty and sensuality. While the composition lacks any diagonal lines and mixed colors, it is paradoxically satisfying and seductive. It triggers the mathematical pleasure senses with the same satisfaction of decluttering a filled room, organizing a prized collection, or discovering the solution to a complex problem.