Piet Mondrian
Escaping in 1940 from a Europe at war, Mondrian spent the last four years of his life in New York City. His paintings of that time express exuberance at city life. In his final painting, Broadway Boogie Woogie (painted around 1942 or 1943), the checkerboard lines, previously black, are now painted blue, gray, red and yellow. The yellow was apparently inspired by New York’s Yellow cabs.