Burgoyne Diller (b. 1906) was among the first American artists to explore the possibilities of hard-edge geometric abstraction and colour field in his work. After attending the New York Art Students League and working with the WPA for a number of years, Diller's style became more geometric as he began to integrate European Neoplasticism and Constructivism (particularly the ideas of Piet Mondrian and Kazimir Malevich) into his work.

Diller developed an innovative typology of three aesthetic "themes" that structured his artistic practice. In "Second Theme" works, four-sided shapes fit into irregular grid structures that fill the paper or canvas. The white ground evokes a sense of calm and artistic possibility -- some "Second Themes" are made up of almost entirely white space.

You can view other “Second Theme” drawings in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the Worcester Art Museum, among others. Second Theme paintings are held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Sheldon Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.