LOT DETAILS

Materials:

oil on board in the artist's painted frame

Measurements:

12.24 in. (31.10 cm.) (height) by 12.24 in. (31.10 cm.) (width)

Markings:

signed with artist's monogram and dated '1917' (on the reverse)

Exhibited:

Weimar, Landesmuseum, Retrospektiv Theo van Doesburg, December 1923-January 1924. (possibly) Hanover, Kestner Gesellschaft, Retrospektiv Theo van Doesburg, April 1924. Basel, Kunsthalle, Konstruktivisten, January-February 1937, p. 11 no. 15 (dated 1917). New York, Art of This Century (Peggy Guggenheim), Theo van Doesburg, April-May 1947, no. 19 (titled Composition 7 and dated 1917). (possibly) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Walt Kuhn, Lyonel Feininger and Theo van Doesburg, June-July 1947. The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Theo van Doesburg, July-August 1947. (possibly) Seattle, Henry Art Gallery, Theo van Doesburg, September 1947. The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Theo van Doesburg: Paintings, Drawings, Photographs and Architectural Drawings, October-November 1947, no. 90. (possibly) Cincinnati Art Museum, Theo van Doesburg, November-December 1947. Cambridge, Harvard Graduate School of Design Institute of Modern Art, Exhibition--van Doesburg, January 1948, no. 40. New York, Rose Fried Gallery, Theo van Doesburg, March 1951. New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Painters of de Stijl: Debut of Abstract Art in Holland, 1917-21, May-June 1951, no. 10 (titled Composition, Ochre and Black and dated 1917). New York, The Museum of Modern Art and Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, De Stijl, 1917-1928, December 1952-April 1953. New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Selected Works by 20th Century European Artists, January-February 1969, no. 45 (titled Composition in Yellow & Ochre). London, Annely Juda Fine Art, The 1st Russian Show: A Commemoration of the Van Diemen Exhibition Berlin 1922, September-December 1983.

Literature:

The Artist's List 1, Van Doesburg Archive (VDA) no. 1469 (titled Compositie IX 1917). N. van Doesburg, Portfolio (The artist's exercise books, VDA no. 1706), no. 89 (titled Motief-vloer and dated 1917). "Az épitészet mint szintetikus müvészet" in Ma. Aktivista Folyóirat 7, no. 7, 1 July 1922, p. 35 (illustrated). "Have You the Courage To Be Elegant?" in House & Garden, November 1963, p. 221 (illustrated in color in situ). S. Polano, ed., Theo van Doesburg. Scritti di arte e di architettura, Rome, 1979, p. 538, no. ARCH 5 (illustrated, fig. 55; titled Piastrella di ceramica and dated 1917). J.M. Joosten, "Rondom van Doesburg. De schilder--en beeldhouwkunst binnen het verband van De Stijl, 1915-1922. Het werk van Theo van Doesburg, Piet Mondriaan, Bart van der Leck en Vilmos Huszar" in Tableau 5 (1982-1983), no.1, September-October 1982, p. 57. A. Doig, Theo van Doesburg: Painting Into Architecture, Theory Into Practice, Cambridge, 1986, pp. 65 and 67 (illustrated, p. 67, fig. 16). E. Van Straaten, Theo van Doesburg: Painter and Architect, exh. cat., Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, The Hague, 1988, p. 49. E. Hoek, ed., Theo van Doesburg, oeuvre catalogus, Utrecht, 2000, p. 225, no. 570 (illustrated in color).

Provenance:

Nelly van Doesburg, Paris. Rose Fried Gallery (The Pinacotheca), New York (acquired from the above, circa 1947-1949). Acquired from the above by the late owners, by 1951.