Composition.

These clean straight lines and primary colours exemplify the radically simple style that Piet Mondrian made famous in the early 1920s. Mondrian was the best-known artist of De Stijl (The Style), an Amsterdam abstract art movement established in 1917 by Theo van Doesburg.

Mondrian made only paintings during his career. After he died, Van Doesburg’s widow, Nelly, supervised the creation of this print – copied from a 1921 painting – at renowned Paris printmaking studio Atelier Arcay. The work was initially sold as an actual Mondrian because it so faithfully follows the original’s design – considered the most important element of his work.

So, authentic Mondrian or not? What makes a work an original?