De Stijl

De Stijl (

According to van Doesburg in the introduction of the De Stijl, the movement was a reaction to the Dutch expressionist architecture of the Amsterdam School movement.

Principles and influences

Mondrian sets forth the delimitations of Neoplasticism in his essay "Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art".^[4] He writes, "this new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary, it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour". With these constraints, his art allows only primary colours and non-colours, only squares and rectangles, only straight and horizontal or vertical lines.^[5] The De Stijl movement posited the fundamental principle of the geometry of the straight line, the square, and the rectangle, combined with a strong asymmetricality; the predominant use of pure primary colors with black and white; and the relationship between positive and negative elements in an arrangement of non-objective forms and lines.^[6]

Dadaism

De Stijl Manifesto I, November 1918

The name De Stijl is supposedly derived from Gottfried Semper's Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten oder Praktische Ästhetik (1861–3), which Curl^[3] suggests was mistakenly believed to advocate materialism and functionalism. The "plastic vision" of De Stijl artists, also called Neo-Plasticism, saw itself as reaching beyond the changing appearance of natural things to bring an audience into intimate contact with an immutable core of reality, a reality that was not so much a visible fact as an underlying spiritual vision.^[7] In general, De Stijl proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting, by using only straight horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms. Furthermore, their formal vocabulary was limited to the primary colours, red, yellow, and blue, and the three primary values, black, white, and grey. The works avoided symmetry and attained aesthetic balance by the use of opposition. This element of the movement embodies the second meaning of stijl: "a post, jamb or support"; this is best exemplified by the construction of crossing joints, most commonly seen in carpentry.

In many of the group's three-dimensional works, vertical and horizontal lines are positioned in layers or planes that do not intersect, thereby allowing each element to exist independently and unobstructed by other elements. This feature can be found in the Rietveld Schröder House and the Red and Blue Chair.

De Stijl was influenced by

During that period, Theo van Doesburg started looking for other artists to set up a journal and start an art movement. Van Doesburg was also a writer, poet, and critic, who had been more successful writing about art than working as an independent artist.^[9] Quite adept at making new contacts due to his flamboyant personality and outgoing nature, he had many useful connections in the art world.

Founding of De Stijl

Around 1915, Van Doesburg started meeting the artists who would eventually become the founders of the journal. He first met Piet Mondrian at an exhibition in Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Mondrian, who had moved to Paris in 1912 (and there, changed his name from "Mondriaan"), had been visiting the Netherlands when war broke out. He could not return to Paris, and was staying in the artists' community of Laren, where he met Bart van der Leck and regularly saw M. H. J. Schoenmaekers. In 1915, Schoenmaekers published Het nieuwe wereldbeeld ("The New Worldview"), followed in 1916 by Beginselen der beeldende wiskunde ("Principles of Visual Mathematics"). These two publications would greatly influence Mondrian and other members of De Stijl.

Van Doesburg also knew J. J. P. Oud and the Hungarian artist Vilmos Huszár. In 1917 the cooperation of these artists, together with the poet Antony Kok, resulted in the founding of De Stijl. The young architect Gerrit Rietveld joined the group in 1918. At its height De Stijl had 100 members and the journal had a circulation of 300.^[10]

During those first few years, the group was still relatively homogeneous, although Van der Leck left in 1918 due to artistic differences of opinion.

Theo van Doesburg (r) and Cornelis van Eesteren (l) in their studio in Paris, 1923

Van Doesburg and Rietveld interior, c.1919, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The name Nieuwe Beelding was a term first coined in 1917 by Mondrian, who wrote a series of twelve articles called De Nieuwe Beelding in de schilderkunst ("Neo-Plasticism in Painting") that were published in the journal De Stijl. In 1920 he published a book titled Le Néo-Plasticisme.^[11]

After 1920

Around 1921, the group's character started to change. From the time of van Doesburg's association with

After van Doesburg's death

Theo van Doesburg died in Davos, Switzerland, in 1931. His wife, Nelly, administered his estate. Because of van Doesburg's pivotal role within De Stijl, the group did not survive. Individual members remained in contact, but De Stijl could not exist without a strong central character. Thus, it may be wrong to think of De Stijl as a close-knit group of artists. The members knew each other, but most communication took place by letter. For example, Mondrian and Rietveld never met in person.

Many, though not all, artists did stay true to the movement's basic ideas, even after 1931. Rietveld, for instance, continued designing furniture according to De Stijl principles, while Mondrian continued working in the style he had initiated around 1920. Van der Leck, on the other hand, went back to figurative compositions after his departure from the group.

Influence on architecture

The De Stijl influence on architecture remained considerable long after its inception;

• 
  Theo van Doesburg
• 
  Antony Kok
• 
  Piet Mondrian
• 
  J.J.P. Oud
• 
  Gerrit Rietveld
• 
  Vilmos Huszár
• 
  Jan Wils

• Ilya Bolotowsky (1907–1981), painter and sculptor^[14]
• Burgoyne Diller (1906–1965), painter^[15]
• Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931), painter, designer, and writer; co-founder of De Stijl movement; published De Stijl, 1917–1931^[2]
• Cornelis van Eesteren (1897–1981), architect^[16]
• Jean Gorin (1899–1981), painter, sculptor^[16]
• Robert van 't Hoff (1887–1979), architect^[17]
• Vilmos Huszár (1884–1960), painter^[18]
• Frederick John Kiesler (1890–1965), architect, theater designer, artist, sculptor^[19]
• Antony Kok (1882–1969), poet^[20]
• Bart van der Leck (1876–1958), painter^[2]
• Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), painter, co-founder of De Stijl^[2]
• Marlow Moss (1889–1958), painter^[16]
• J. J. P. Oud (1890–1963), architect^[2]
• Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964), architect and designer^[2]
• Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948), painter,^[21] sculptor^[22]
• Georges Vantongerloo (1886–1965), sculptor^[2]
• Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart (1899–1962), painter^[2]
• Jan Wils (1891–1972), architect^[23]

See also