De Stijl
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Stijl, de
(də stīl) [Du.,=the style], Dutch nonfigurative art movement, also called neoplasticism. In 1917 a group of artists, architects, and poets was organized under the name de Stijl, and a journal of the same name was initiated. The leaders of the movement were the artists Theo van DoesburgDoesburg, Theo van, 1883–1931, Dutch painter, teacher, and writer. Together with Mondrian he founded the magazine De Stijl and successfully proselytized in Europe for the new aesthetic of abstraction, simplicity, clarity, and harmony.
..... Click the link for more information. and Piet MondrianMondrian, Piet
, 1872–1944, Dutch painter. He studied at the academy in Amsterdam and passed through an early naturalistic phase. In 1910 he went to Paris, where the influence of cubism stimulated the development of his geometric, nonobjective style, which he called
..... Click the link for more information. . They advocated a purification of art, eliminating subject matter in favor of vertical and horizontal elements, and the use of primary colors and noncolors. Their austerity of expression influenced architects, principally J. J. P. OudOud, Jacobus Johannes Pieter
, 1890–1963, Dutch architect. Oud's interest in abstract painting led him to conceive of buildings composed in terms of pure planes. With several painters, including Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg, he became associated with the influential
..... Click the link for more information. and Gerrit RietveldRietveld, Gerrit Thomas
, 1888–1965, Dutch architect and furniture designer. At first a cabinetmaker, Rietveld created (c.1917) a chair that was an important contribution to modern furniture design.
..... Click the link for more information. . The movement lasted until 1931; in architecture a few de Stijl principles are still applied.
Bibliography
See study by H. L. C. Jaffé (1968).
De Stijl
De Stijl
an avant-garde group of Dutch architects and artists that was founded in Leiden in 1917 around the journal De Stijl (1917–28). The group disbanded in 1931.
The De Stijl artists advanced neoplasticism, that is, the rejection of the representational, social, and cognitive tasks of art and the turning to pure forms, generalized to the maximum degree. In painting the style led to a geometric form of abstract art, as seen in the works of P. Mondrian, T. van Doesburg (the group’s organizer and theorist), and B. van der Leck. The architectural style of De Stijl was marked by strict mathematical measurements and ascetically precise spatial composition; these qualities especially distinguish the designs of van Doesburg, J. J. P. Oud, and G. Rietveld. De Stijl architecture to some extent influenced the development of functionalism.
REFERENCES
Modernizm (2nd ed.). Moscow, 1973. Pages 130–38.Jaffé, H. L. C. De Stijl, 1917–1931. The Dutch Contribution to Modern Art. Amsterdam, 1956.