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. His "First Theme" is defined by solid rectangular forms (inspired by his work in collage) against a neutral ground. The Cleveland Museum of Art describes the "controlled and ordered tensions" in these works.

You can view other “First Theme” works in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Walker Art Center, MoMA, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.