1917 - 1931
DE STIJL There is an old and a new consciousness of the age. The old one is directed towards the individual. The new one is directed towards the universal. The struggle of the individual against the universal may be seen both in the world war and in modern art. - 1918 Manifesto
De Stijl (“The Style” in Dutch) was one of the first Modernist movements created. It was founded and leader by Theo Van Doesburg in the Netherlands in 1917. Joining Van Doesburg were painters, architects, and designers who created art in an abstract geometric style, utilizing shapes such as lines, triangles, rectangles, and also using primary colors such as red, yellow and blue with black and white. The philosophy of the group is called neoplasticism – the new plastic art and the belief that art shouldn’t be the reproduction of real objects, but as the absolutes of life such as lines, circles, triangles, squares and rectangles. Such movement has greatly influenced today’s modern culture and De Stijl is not only seen in art galleries, but in furniture, architecture and even clothing.
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THEO VAN DOESBURG
Simultaneous Counter-Composition
Oil on canvas, 19 3/4 x 19 5/8” (50.1 x 49.8 cm).
Composition VII (The Three Graces)
oil on canvas. Dimensions 85 × 85 cm (33.5 × 33.5 in)
Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931) was Dutch painter, writer, and architect who create and directed the De Stijl movement. Van Doesburg first exhbition was in 1908. In 1912 and so he uphold his works by writing in magazines. Vincent Van Gogh influenced him in style, although he considered himself as a modern painter. He pursued a spiritual and more creative abstract style instead of painting everyday life paintings. In 1915 while he was attending to an exposition for one of the magazines that he was working for, he came in contact with Piet Mondrian who gained Van Doeasburg attention with his abstract paintings. Later more artists came together and founded De Stijl magazine in 1917. Van Doesburg became the ambassador of the movement and he started promoting De Stijl across Europe. In 1922 he moved to Weimar to convince the principal of the Bauhaus to spread the influence of De Stijl but the Bauhaus principal Walter Gropius didn’t felt to. Van Doesburg also besides promoting the movement and being a painter he also began to design houses for artists with the De Stijl influence. Later, he constructed an alphabet in 1919 and now in these days is called Archetype Van Doesburg. He saw Dadaism and the Stij movement as complimentary although it is completely different were the Dada movement destroy the old order, and De stijl build a new one with the prewar culture. He published the De Stijl magazine until his death in 1931.
De Stijl
1921.Vol. 4, no. 11, Anthologie-Bonset
Contra-Construction Project, Axonometric
1923. Gouache on lithograph, 22 1/2 x 22 1/2” (57.2 x 57.2 cm).
Archetype Van Doesburg, c. 1919
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PIET MONDRIAN Piet Mondrian (1872 – 1944) was a Dutch painter and a great exponent of the De Stijl movement. Mondrian’s paintings provided the basis from which the movement, philosophy developed. In 1911, Mondrian’s painting style was also inspired and influenced by Van Gogh style in changing his painting style going from traditional landscape to a symbolic style. In 1914 Mondrian remained in the Netherlands because the World War I prevented him from going back to Paris. In the Netherlands while he was in his transformation to become an abstract painter. Piet Mondrian was also influenced by the philosopher M. H. J. Schoenmakers who defined “Horizontal and the vertical as the two fundamental opposites shaping our world, and called red, yellow, and blue the three principal colors.”(Meggs’ 313) Mondrian painted abstract paints with horizontal and vertical lines using the three primary colors; blue, red and yellow. He stated that visual art, “is attained through dynamic movement in equilibrium . . . established through the balance of unequal but equivalent oppositions. The clarification of equilibrium through plastic art is of great importance for humanity . . . It is the task of art to express a clear vision of reality.” (Meggs’ 313) Mondrian was part of the first publication of the De Stijl magazine, where he stated, “The life of contemporary cultivated man is turning gradually away from nature; it becomes more and more an a-b-s-t-r-a-c-t life.”(Cramsie 183) He wrote the word abstract like that to make the letters as an element of nature.
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Broadway Boogie Woogie
1942-43. Oil on canvas, 50 x 50” (127 x 127 cm).
Composition with Yellow, Red, and Blue.
1927. Oil on Canvas. 40 x 50.5 cm (15 3/4 x 19 7/8 in.)
Composition No. II, with Red and Blue
1929. (original date partly obliterated; mistakenly repainted 1925 by Mondrian). Oil on canvas, 15 7/8 x 12 5/8” (40.3 x 32.1 cm)
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De Stijl Magazine logo, c. 1917
VILMOS HUSZร R Vilmos Huszรกr (1884-1960) was a painter and designer from Hungary. Huszรกr studied at the Budapest Academy and he moved to Munich in 1904. He lived most of his life in the Netherlands. In his first works the movements of Cubism and Futurism influenced him. In 1916 he met Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian and he become part of the De Stijl movement. Huszar designed the first cover of the magazine and he created a logo for the movement. The letters of the logo were made by block rectangles and squares separated from each other, but forming the name De Stijl. He co-founded the first issue of the De Stijl magazine publication. In 1926, Huszar created the complete visual identity for Miss Blanche Virginia cigarettes, he created all the publicity and the packaging.
Compositie, c. 1917
Mechano-Dancer c.1922
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Miss Blanche Cigarettes c. 1926, logo
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GERRIT RIETVELD Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888-1964) was a Dutch architect and furniture designer. He left school when he was 11 years old and he became an apprentice in his father furniture workshop. In 1917 he opened his own furniture workshop where he marked his own style instead of his father’s traditional style. In that same year he created his legendary Red and Blue chair, which was inspired by the Amsterdam School. A picture of his chair was published in the De Stijl magazine. Later in 1919 he became part of the movement. By the time that De Stijl movement was spread he gained fame as an architect and, in 1925, he built the Shröder House, which is completely inspired in the De Stijl movement. His famous furniture models are The Zig Zag chair, his Red and Blue Chair, the Armchair, etc.
Schröder House, c. 1924
Red Blue chair, c. 1923.
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Zig Zag chair, c. 1934
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BART VAN DER LECK
Metz & Co. c. 1952, logo for luxury department store
Bart Anthony van der Leck (1876-1958) Dutch painter and designer who took part of the foundation of the De Stijl movement with Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. He worked for eight years in stained-glass studios. Later he went to the State School of Arts and Crafts in Amsterdam to study painting. He was inspired by the Art Nouveau style of Der Kinderen, and then by the Dutch Impressionists, but he started making figure paintings. In 1913 he had the first one artist exhibition at the Kunsthandel W. Walrecht. He met Mondrian in 1916 at Laren and he started painting simple abstract paintings in forms of squares and triangles with the primary colors and black and white. He helped with the De Stijl magazine’s first publication in 1917, but he dissociated himself from the De Stijl group and he continued making the same figurative compositions. Van der Leck used flat geometric shapes and use of simple black bars to organize the space before the movement was created.
Delfia Vegetable Oil c.1919, poster design
Composition with one grey stripe. c.1958
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LEGACY The legacy of the De Stijl is their abstract but pure art that in these days we can see everywhere from clothing with the primary colors and lines, the architecture these days that are inspired by for example The Shrรถder House with minimalistic and clean shapes. Also the store Ikea sells a lot of minimalistic inspired furniture. The movement is the inspiration for many artists these days where the movement has been the influence of differents types of art thru the decades.
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COLOPHON This catalogue have the Futura typeface designed by Paul Renner in 1927. The catalogue is written and designed by Sarahi Miranda
REFERENCES Cramsie, Patrick. (2010). The Story of Graphic Design: From the Invention of Writing to the Birth of Digital Design. New York, NY. Abrams. Meggs, Phillip B. Purvis, Alston W. (2011). Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. (5th ed.) . Wiley.
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