Primary colors can be combined in different ways to produce every other color. Embedded in their absolute simplicity, then, is a latent complexity—a potential for extrapolation and manipulation.

Take, for example, the art of Alexander Rodchenko. In 1921, the pioneering Russian artist joined four of his constructivist movement compatriots in an exhibition in Moscow. Rodchenko was bold, as always, and his contribution to the show was a triptych: Pure Red Color, Pure Yellow Color and Pure Blue Color. The three canvases—each covered in a primary pigment—were modern art’s first non-figurative monochromes. He didn’t describe his work as an homage to painting, or frame it as the concentrated essence of all color and thus a celebration of the art form’s material genesis. Instead, Ro...