De Stijl
The style: 1917
Piet Mondrian and Theo Van Doesburg were the headers of De Stijl movement.The Stijl( the style) is a Dutch movement that began in 1917 and lasted till 1931. The movement was discovered by a painter named Piet Mondrian, he developed the movement as his own art, later and artists named Theo Van Doesburg developed the movement further.
The Stijl movement was all about primary colours, quadrilateral shapes of squares and rectangles and horizontal and vertical lines. (Steyn, 2017)
The Stijl movement was known to create:
- Spiritual harmony and order
The Stijl embraced the simple terms of abstraction, it broke down the confusing parts of art into simple visual elements of squares, rectangles and lines. In simple terms the movement broke down an image to its core, to fundamentals of lines and geometric shape, this was done to achieve a place of balance and harmony.
The only art movement that responded to the chaos of World War 1 with the idea of returning to order. The movement rejected pre-war decoration tendencies and pushed Cubism to the extremes. The movement wanted to show abstraction in terms of using basic components of lines and geometric shapes. (99designs Blog, 2017)
Figure 1: P, Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, 1921, Oil on canvas.
(Madamepickwickartblog.com, 2017)
The image above is a painting done by Piet Mondrian, an example of simple forms of abstraction. Decorative abstract art. The De Stijl is very simple, it went to from paintings to furniture. (99designs Blog, 2017)
In order to reform society, De Stijl aimed to eliminate false distinctions between applied art and architecture, and the image above showed that well enough.
Influenced by Cubism, suprematism, the anti-sentimentalism of Dada and the neo-platonic mathematical theory of M.H.J Schoenmaker. (Steyn, 2017)
Black and white were the non-colours that were used in some artworks.
De Stijl used:
- Elimination
- Reduction
- Simplification
- Dynamic asymmetrical balance
- Rectangles
- Planes
- Vertical
- Horizontals
- Primary colours
- Non-colours
Using the bare essentials of what makes an image. Piet Mondrian used fundamental qualities of ideas through his abstraction. De Stijl was the movement that was closest to pure abstraction. For Mondrian art and philosophy were deeply intertwined. (The Art Story, 2017)
Architect Theo Van Doesburg
Neo-plasticism
A painting style and idea that was developed by Theo Van Doesburg promoted by the De Stijl movement. Neo-plasticsm also was known as plastic art, a novel way of representing reality. The term Neo-plasticsm embodies Mondrian's vision of an ideal, abstract art that was felt to suit the modern era. (The Art Story, 2017)
Figure 2: T.Van Doesburg, Composition VIII( The Cow), 1918, Oil on canvas.
(The Museum of Modern Art, 2017)
(The Museum of Modern Art, 2017)
Van Doesburg made his paintings style due to mathematics. He emphasised on the dynamic balance of his compositions reflect what he saw as the universal balance of these forces. Simplification of the pictorial elements was essential for Van Doesburg's creation of a new abstract art.
Elementarism emphasising subtle shifts in tones, tilting squares and rectangles at angles, relative to the picture plane. Complex balance( dynamic composition). More of enforcing the canvas into harmony.
De Stijl today:
Figure 3: P. Le Miere, Mondrian Rubik's Cube, 2014, Object.
(The Art Story, 2017)
Today the De Stijl movement projected from canvases to furniture and objects. The image above is a Rubik's cube done in the De Stijl style. It was the first Rubiks cube done before the ones that have different colours. To show the De Stijl movement impacted many movements and styles of designing that the style is carried through today.
Fashion, furniture, objects, decorations, etc. The Rubik's cube uses similar characteristics of the De Stijl movement, with the use of the grid of horizontal and vertical lines, the use of primary colours, and because it is chaos solving the Rubik's cube, the characteristics that it has is harmony and order. At the end when the Rubik's cube has solved the object itself creates harmony, with all the colours matching.
Bibliography
99designs Blog. (2017). A brief visual history of the utopian De Stijl movement. [online] Available at: https://99designs.com/blog/creative-inspiration/know-your-design-history-the-utopian-de-stijl-movement/ [Accessed 18 May 2017].
The Museum of Modern Art. (2017). Theo van Doesburg (Christian Emil Marie Küpper). Composition VIII (The Cow). c. 1918 | MoMA. [online] Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79189 [Accessed 18 May 2017].
The Art Story. (2017). De Stijl Movement, Artists and Major Works. [online] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-de-stijl.htm [Accessed 18 May 2017].
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