Home/Symbols/Large white rectangles (rests/city blocks)Large white rectangles (rests/city blocks) SymbolismOpen fields that read as pauses or ‘rests’ in rhythm and as city blocks in an abstracted plan.Common ThemesRace & ethnicityThe modern lens: urban life & speedMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Everyday life as art (readymade, the ordinary)War & conflictLandscape & placeArtworks Featuring This SymbolBroadway Boogie WoogiePiet Mondrian (1942–1943)Mondrian converts New York’s pulse into a <strong>vibrating grid</strong> of color. In place of black bars, intersecting <strong>yellow bands</strong> studded with red, blue, white, and light gray units generate a <strong>syncopated rhythm</strong> across wide white blocks that read as pauses and city blocks <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.