What is de Stijl?

1

• What is de Stijl?

• A school of art originating in the Netherlands
  in 1917 and characterized by the use of
  rectangular shapes and primary colors.
• The De Stijl (literally, "the style") art
  movement was founded by the painter and architect
  Theo van Doesburg in Leiden in 1917.
• It encompassed a new type of style in modern art
  and architecture. This movement used the artistic
  talent of the artists by designing homes,
  buildings, and furniture.

2
What is de Stijl?

• A stripping down of the traditional forms of
  architecture, furniture, painting or sculpture
  into simple basic geometric components or
  elements.
• The composition from these separate elements of
  formal configurations which are perceived as
  wholes, while remaining clearly constructed
  from individual and independent elements.
• A studied and sometimes extreme asymmetry of
  composition or design.
• An exclusive use of orthogonal (horizontal and
  vertical lines or elements) and the pigment
  primary colors (pure red, yellow and blue),
  plus the neutral color or tones (white, gray and
  black). Overy, Paul, De Stijl London Thomas and
  Hudson Ltd. 1997.

3
What is de Stijl?

• Objective Perspective
• Founder members of the group included the painter
  Mondrian, the sculptor Vantongerloo, the
  architect J.J.P. Oud and the designer and
  architect Rietveld. They were eager to develop a
  new aesthetic consciousness and an objective art
  based on clear principles. Their work and
  research extended to the fine arts, city and town
  planning, the applied arts and philosophy.

4
What is de Stijl?
Gerrit Rietveld Schröder Table
Red and Blue Chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld in
1917
Note the use of simple orthogonal lines primary
colors.
Piet-Mondrian inspired bathroom cabinet
5
What is de Stijl?

• "The New Plastic in Painting", best expresses
  their ideas for reduction of form and simplistic
  abstraction "The new plastic art...can only be
  based on the abstraction of all form and color,
  i.e. the straight line and the clearly defined
  primary color" (De Stijl Magazine, Lemoine, 1987,
  p.29).

Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red 1939-42.
Piet Mondrian. Oil on canvas. 72.5 x 69 cm.
London, Tate Gallery.
6
What is de Stijl?

• While Mondrian's work adhered to the strict
  principles of Neo-Plasticism, Van Doesburg sought
  to broaden the movement's research projects into
  architecture, reconceiving the entire living
  environment.

• A De Stijl picture represented a fragment of a
  larger project concerning space the house as an
  interior space, and the city as an assembly of
  houses.
• The austere forms of De Stijl were well suited to
  the geometric structures favored by the
  International Modernist movement, while the
  primary colors favored by the painters could be
  used as decorative elements to articulate an
  otherwise plain facade.

Rietveld Schroder HouseThe NetherlandsGerrit
Thomas Rietveld 1924
7
Alternate Views Detail
8
Other Architectural Works
Weissenhof Estate housing, JJP Oud, Stuttgart
Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art
Café de Unie, JJP Oud, Rotterdam