De Stijl
Table of contents
De Stijl/ The Style 2-3 Piet Mondrian 4 The Journal 5 Graphic Design 6-7 New Influence
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Legacy 10-11 Colophon 12
de stijl
De Stijl was a Dutch artistic movement that was founded in 1917, with simplicity and abstraction that expressed a utopian sense of balance and harmony. This showed through the elements of geometric forms and primary colors. De Stijl was simply defined as “unity in plurality,” as said by architect H.P. Berlange. It was solely based on the geometric shape of the rectangle and the use of white, black, gray, and primary colors (red, blue, yellow).
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The Style
The name De Stijl was also the name of a journal that was established in 1917 and it was edited by a Dutch painter, designer, critic, and writer Theo van Doesburg. Van Doesburg helped the publication to propagate the member’s theories within the journal. Other members within this group included painters Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszar, and Bart vad der Leck and architects Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van’t Hoff, and J.J.P. Oud. The sole idea of the group’s work was referred to as
neoplasticism; a new style and a new plastic of art. This style only primarily focuses on the shapes rectangles and squares, primary colors, and only straight and vertical and horizontal lines and focus on asymmetry.
The Red/Blue Chair that was also designed by Gerrit Rietveld was produced in 1918 and it was the very first representation of De Stijl’s art movement exploration in three-dimensionality. The original chair was made out of unstained beech wood, and it was not till the 1920s that Bart van der Leck suggested to Rietveld to paint it in bright colors. Rietveld ended up creating a new model that was made of thinner lacquered wood and painted entirely in black with hints of primary colors, this gave the chair an appearance of transparence structure, and this layout of colors exemplified the De Stijl art movement.
three dimensional
In the De Stijl movement the artists three-dimensional works that include vertical and horizontal lines that are shown, focusing on planes that do not intersect, allowing each plane to maintain an independent separation from other components (lines) in the compositional frame of art. These non-obstructive vertical and horizontal lines can be shown in the design and architecture of the Rietveld Schroder House, built by architect Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld experimented with architecture and ended up constructing planes in space with dynamic asymmetrical relationships that is a basis for the Schroeder House.
Schroder House. Gerrit Rietveld. 1924.
Red/Blue Chair. Gerrit Rietveld. 1918.
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piet mondrian
Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue. Piet Mondrian. 1927.
One of the biggest influences of De Stijl was Cubist paintings and the notions of the ideal of geometric forms; this was the basis for the philosophy of the mathematician M.H.J. Schoenmaekers. De Stijl artists sought inspiration from the mathematical structure of the universe and its sense of harmony in nature. They believed through this time of war the world had lost its sense of general consciousness and that science, technology, and political developments would usher a new era of detachment and that prewar values had lost their relevance. As quoted in
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Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, “De Stijl sought the universal laws that govern visible reality but are hidden by the outward appearance of things. Scientific theory, mechanical production, and the rhythms of the modern city formed from these universal laws.� De Stijl was founded in the Netherlands a country that stayed neutral during World War I and many of their people were isolated and could not leave. Through this time, painter Van Doesburg gained inspiration during this isolated time and from this prewar theory and wanted to start a new publication and to gather members to start a new art movement, that wanted to be a basis for order and harmony.
During this isolated time Van Doesburg ended up meeting one of his principal members, Piet Mondrian. Mondrian produced a body of paintings that were nonrepresentational form. These forms consisted of a white base and over that he painted a grid consisting of vertical and horizontal black lines and the three primary colors. Mondrian had reduced his visual vocabulary from landscape paintings to abstract paintings specifically composed mainly of these horizontal and vertical lines, flat planes, neutral and primary colors. Elements such as these show in his oil on canvas painting, Composition with Red, Yellow, and Blue in 1927. Implications of modern design showed through this painting and a sense of an incomparable spirit.
The Journal
Theo van Doesburg applied De Stijl philosophy to sculpture, architecture, and typography. He edited and published the journal De Stijl and it ended up becoming a natural pathway for expressing the art movements main beliefs in graphic design. Vilmos Huszar’s cover design for De Stijl in 1917 expresses this philosophy. In this cover page Huszar jointed his composition with type and Van Doesburg’s logo to produce a crisp rectangle in the center of the page. Also displayed on this cover page is a design by Huszar the De Stijl logo that consists of letters constructed from an open grid of squares and rectangles. Huszar also designed some of the early title pages in 1918 for De Stijl; it showed positive/negative spatial relationships. Another cover designed by Van Doesburg was for the book cover that truly conveyed the essence of De Stijl titled Grundbegriffe der neuen gestaltenden kunst (Principles of Modern Design) in 1925. Van Doesburg collaborated with Hungarian artist Laszlo MoholyNagy to create this simplistic design that consisted of primary colors, neutral gray, and black horizontal and vertical bars that contained typography.
In 1921 Van Doesburg developed “new horizontal format” that was used up till the very last issue of De Stijl in 1932. Another later development was Doesburg’s vertical and horizontal arrangement of letterforms and design layout. The usual curved and diagonal lines were taken out and sans serif typefaces were more favorable to use. Elements such as an open applied grid in an asymmetrical leveled layout are shown in Theo Van Doesburg cover for Klassiek, Barok, Moderne(Classic, Baroque and Modern), in 1920. Van Doesburg actually used his own letterforms in this particular cover.
Top to Bottom/ Left to Right: Vilmos Huszar. De Stijl. Magazine cover, 1917. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Theo van Doesburg. Grundbegriffe der Neuen Gestaltenden Kunst. Book cover, 1925. Theo van Doesburg. Klassiek, Barok, Moderne(Classic, Baroque and Modern), 1920. Vilmos Huszar, De Stijl Magazine cover 2, 1917.
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Graphic design
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Not only did the principle artist designing covers for the De Stijl journal, but also designed logos and posters for De Stijl. Vilmos Huszar’s Miss Blanche Egyptian Ciggarettes Poster in 1926 displays positive and negative spatial ground that De Stijl artists often used in graphic design. The simplistic structures of black rectangles and squares that make up De Stijl logos are consistently displayed when viewing Piet Zwart’s logo for IOCO, in 1922-23. Typography also was an enormous factor for designing a layout for the
art movement De Stijl. An example for typography used is Vilmos Huszar’s Ex Libris Voor Lena de Roos which was a bookplate that displayed the title in block type that filled the space using negative and positive spatial relationships. Van Doesbug created his own typeface for De Stijl, this is shown in his work entitled Alphabet in 1919. It is treated in a single red color that is composed of thick block lines, reminiscent of frequently used block rectangles and squares in De Stijl’s cover pages.
Page 6: Vilmos Huszar. Miss Blanche Egyptian Cigaretts. Poster, 1926. Top to Bottom/ Left to Right: Vilmos Huszar. Ex Libris Voor Lena de Roos. Bookplate, 1922-24. Piet Zwart. Logos for IOCO. 1922-23. Theo van Doesburg. Alphabet. 1919.
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new influence
In 1921 Van Doesburg used his new developed format that consisted of black bold lettering and a secondary color( red). Red was favored as a second color in printing, but not only that it signified the power of revolution.This is shown in his cover for De Stijl in 1922. As the layout is described in Meggs’ History of Graphic Design,“The type is aysmmetrically balanced in the four corners of an implied rectangle. De Stijl is combined with the letters N and B, which indicated Nieuwe Beelden.” The layout is also is based on the structure of a grid, with a neutral background. In 1921 Van Doesburg’s advertisments and announcements from De Stijl is also based on his new horizontal format. In This particular announcement it displays 5 announcements that are unified by a system of open black bars and sans-serif typography.
Van Doeburg intoroduced a new typographic project collabration with one of leading founders of Dada, Kurt Schwitters. He saw massive potential in this new upcoming art movement known as Dada. This collaboration is shown in his Kleine Dada Soiree poster in 1922. This poster shows another side of Van Doesburg’s artistic creativity. Van Doesburg also explores the typography and poetry in Dada which in published in the De Stijl journal in 1921. Another exploration in the Dada art movement was the cover for De Stijl that was designed by one of Contructivists and Dadaist, El Lissitzky in 1922. Dada was very influential to Van Doesburg and the designing of the De Stijl journal.
Top to Bottom/ Left to Right: Page 8: Theo van Doesburg. De Stijl cover,1922. El Lissitzky. De Stijl cover, 1922. Theo van Doesburg. Dadaist poetry from De Stijl, 1921. Theo van Doesburg. Advertisements and announcements from De Stijl, 1921. Page 9: Theo van Doesburg and Kurt Schwitters. Kleine Dada Soiree poster, 1922.
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legacy
Around the early 1920s the character of the group started to change and other artistic movements like Dada, the Bauhaus and Constructivism influenced this change; members of De Stijl did not fully accept this new change, even members like Mondrian ended up leaving the group in 1924 because of this. In the end the members of De Stijl not only acquired a new change but also new members. In 1931 founding member Van Doesburg died and because of Van Doesburg’s crucial role in De Stijl the movement didn’t last long after his death. Ironically even though this artistic movement had a great impact, the members of De Stijl were not as close of a group, some had never even met in person, only communicated each other through writing letters. Left to Right: Chevrolet school bus. Partridge Family. 1970. Yves Saint Laurent Fall Mondrian Collection. 1965.
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The art movement De Stijl’s legacy left a lasting impression and many of De Stijl artworks are displayed worldwide. De Stijl influenced many artists and designers. Richard Hamilton’s work Putting on De Stijl in 1979 is evidently inspired of De Stijl. It not only takes inspiration from the fundamentals of De Stijl by using flat planes of primary colors, but also displays inspiration from key artworks from De Stijl artist such as Gerrit Rietveld’s work Red/ Blue Chair. Piet Mondrain one of the main members of De Stijl also had a lasting impression on future artists. Well known fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent’s Fall 1965 Mondrian collection featured shift dresses in block primary color with black bordering, which shows the basis of color for the artistic movement De Stijl. In 1970 De Stijl’s influence even made it to television, where it was shown on a popular show The Partridge Family, when it shows a Chevrolet school bus painted in Mondrian’s style and main primary color palette. In 2008, one of the
biggest American cooperations in the world, Nike designed a pair of Dunk Lo SB shoes that were greatly inspired by Mondrian’s iconic neo-plastic paintings that were initially inspired by the artistic movement De Stijl. De Stijl will forever have a lasting impression on the world and even inspired great artistic movements such as Dada and like Dada had made a profound impression in the history of artistic movements. All in all De Stijl left a lasting impression and was one of the leading movements that signified universal balance and harmony in art. Top to Bottom: Nike Dunk Lo SB shoes. 2008. Richard Hamilton. Putting on De Stijl. 1979.
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