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Early Details and the Tran F
ounder of the De Stijl movement, Theo van Doesburg was and still is an influential artist. He was born on August 30, 1883 as Christian Emil Küpper. Growing up, his mother remarried to Theodorus Doesburg. Theo was so convinced that his step father was his actual father that he took his name when he started painting. He added “van” later on. He initially wanted to pursue a theater career but he started painting in the early 1900s after being influenced by Post- Impressionism and Fauvism. Soon after Doesburg started his military service in 1903 before World War I. Around the same time he met his first wife, Agnita Feis, who was a Theosophist and poet. Soon after the start of World War I, Theo was sent to Tilburg. His first marriage was not doing so well when he met Lena Milius, who became his second wife soon after. Around 1915 Theo started to paint abstract, geometric objects found in nature after seeing Piet Mondrian’s work. Van Doesburg’s newer paintings consisted mostly of geometric shapes and primary colors. Both Doesburg and Mondrain became good friends after. Doesburg was energetic and impusive, which caused him to be the public leader of the group. Self portrait with hat 1906
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fter meeting Mondrain, Doesburg’s artistic style completely changed. His artwork before 1915 consisted of very detailed figure portraits and landscapes that use life like colors. His two different styles of artwork does not even look like that they came from the same artist. For example, this series of the same composition of
Composition (The Cow) 1917
a cow drawn by Doesburg in several different processes show the gradual changes he took in changing his style. He went from showing all the details in a subject to just using simple geometric shapes making up an abstract form. In De Stijl, Theo saw a complete abstraction of reality. He also the line as a piece of art work as itself. This belief is displayed
over and over again in his later pieces. He started nonfiguarative paintings. It is kind of mind blowing how someone can drastically change their artistic style and still be very successful. He went from showing every little detail, using different stroke weights and several variations of hue, to using simple shapes and minimum colors.
Dance I 1917
Model private house 1923
De Stijl W
ith the help of Piet Mondrian, they formed De Stijl, Dutch for “The Style“. It was also known as also known as Neoplasticism. “The devotion of both men to the creation of a purely abstract art led to the formation of the De Stijl group in 1917 and the publication of its magazine, De Stijl, which Van Doesburg edited and published from its foundation that year until its demise following his early death in 1931.” The main
characteristic of De Stijl was functionalism/simplicity. All the pieces from this movement showed abstract forms using simple shapes and primary colors plus black and white. In 1920, Theo focused more on promoting De Stijl in Germany and France than his paintings. In this year he also met his third wife, Nelly van Moorsel. They end up getting married a few years later in 1928. He lectured at the Bauhaus school until
1923. His theories influenced many Modernist architects like Le Corbusier, Waler Gropius, and Lugwig Mies van der Rohe. “The design style of the Bauhaus group owed a great deal to the De Stijl group, some of whom joined the school as teachers. The ideal of form following function was also emphasized, emphasizing the honest and direct use of materials as the most “functional” way to design. The result was
spare, rectilinear forms-- in architecture, for example, the structural components of steel, glass, concrete, and other industrial materials were to be used directly and honestly, without imitative form.” While he was in Germany, Theo discovered and had an interest in Dada art. “Using the alias I.K. Bonset, van Doesburg exhibited as a Dadaist in Holland in 1923 and published the Dada art review Mechano.”
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