De
Stijl
© gianina wijaya 2016
Preface This booklet is about an art movement that focuses on geometrical lines, primary colors as well as black and white, named De Stijl. I get the inspiration to make this booklet and essay because I personally used a lot of geometrical shapes in my artworks, and this style is one of favourite styles. Although it might seem simple and abstract, but there’s this essence of pure aesthetic in the artworks and architecture.
“The demand for pure means of expression, first formulated by De Stijl, has become a fact.” - Theo van Doesburg -
Table of content Preface Table of Content Chapter 1: The History Chapter 2: Artists’ Biography • • • •
Piet Mondrian Theo van Doesburg Robert van ’t Hoff Pieter Zwart
Chapter 3: The Influences Movements • Cubism • Futurism Areas of Art • Architecture
Chapter 4: Analysis and Reference
Chapter 1 :
The history
De Stijl, which means “Style� in Dutch, was formed by a group of painters and architects from Netherland. The style was a simple abstract with geometrical lines, combined with primary colors as well as black and white. This movement is not limited in only paintings but also applied to architecture, sculptures, furnitures, and many more. Before become De Stijl as we know now, there is a lot of other art movements that influences the artist that finally becoming a new style, which is De Stijl. The leader and founder of this movement, Theo van Doesburg, first formed De Stijl on 1917, not as an art movement but as a Dutch fine art magazine, which later on become the name of the art movement that has become big influences in the design world. One of the first artists and co-founder was Piet Mondrian. But as a fine art magazine, De Stijl magazine not only published the artworks of De Stijl artist but also the artworks of Constructivists, Futurists, and Dadaists. This triggers several disagreements and arguments because of the difference in opinion. In the end, Mondrian – and other artists - had an argument with van Doesburg and left the group even though De Stijl was still being published. The De Stijl movement ends on 1931 following the death of Theo van Doesburg
Chapter 2 :
artist biography
Pieter Zwart Born in Zaandijk, Netherland on 28 May 1885. For 5 years from 1902, he studied at the Amsterdam School of Applied Arts. Then on 1908 he teaches art history. On 1913 he started designing furniture, and object of applied arts. 5 years later on 1918, he started interior designing. He was greatly influenced by De Stijl although he never became an official member of the movement. From 1919, he took a more critical attitude towards the work of other De Stijl artists and was attacked by van Doesburg on De Stijl in the same year. From 1923, he started to make advertising campaigns and new typographic fonts for Dutch Cableworks. Two years later until 1926, he designed the interior of the Faust restaurant in Paris. On the next year, he had contacts with Kurt Schwitters, who asked him to join the Ring Neuwer Werbegestalter in Germany (Circle of New Advertising Designers). From 1928 to 1929, he experiments with new forms of photography and making advertising campaigns. On 1938 he designed a model kitchen for Bruynzel Company, and his design had become the standard feature in Dutch households. After the World War 2, he becomes a packaging designer, typographical designer in advertising, and photographer. He died in Wassenaar, Netherland on 1977 (Warncke 1994, p. 215)
Piet Mondrian
Victoria Boogie Woogie
Born in Amersfoort, Netherland on 7 March 1872 as Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan. Growing up he received a formal training as an artist. He also received teacher-training diploma for elementary and secondary schools. He had a Naturalist and an Impressionist style until 1907. Then on 1909 he had Symbolist art style. His move to Paris on 1911 was influenced by French Cubist paintings on an Amsterdam exhibition. On July 1914 he returned to Netherland because his father was ill, and on the same year World War 1 happened and he’s forced to stay there. The next year he met with Theo van Doesburg. On 1916 he met with Bart van Der Leck, and the following year he was inspired by Bart, and Co-Founding De Stijl magazine with Theo. 3 years later he moved back to Paris. On 1925 with the help of van Doesburg his manifesto New Design was published in the series of Bauhaus Book after the French edition was released on 1920. But on the same year, because of his Elementarism he had an argument and break with van Doesburg. Fortunately, on 1929 he and van Doesburg renews their friendship. 2 years later, on 1931, van Doesburg set up a new movement group that was called Abstraction-Création, and Mondrian was a member of the group. On 1938, he had to move to London to avoid the Nazi Germany’s thread. Unfortunately, on 1940, he had to move to New York, because the German air attacked London. But during his live in New York he managed to gathers a circle of young American artists around him. Sadly on 1 February 1944, Piet Mondrian dies in New York.
Theo van Doesburg
Doesburg in Davos, 1931
Counter Composition XIV
Born as Emil Marie Küpper in Utrecht, Netherland on 30 August 1883. (Wikipedia 2016). He followed his stepfather step and chooses pseudonym. He had a short period studying drama at Cateau Esser’s School of Dramatic Arts in Amsterdam. He had intended to become a freelance artist and writer since 1902, and because of that from 1912 he publishes art reviews, and teaches himself art. From early 1916 he had contacted with Oud, van der Leck, Huszár, and Mondrian. The next year, he moves to Leiden, and formed the art magazine De Stijl together with them. And since 1920 he went to numerous propaganda trips to Belgium, France, Italy, and Germany in order to promote De Stijl. The same year he also published Dadaist poems. By the end of 1921, he made contact with Bauhaus Artists in Berlin. The next year he tries to become a lecturer at the Bauhaus, but instead he gave a De Stijl course in Weimar and take part in a Constructivist conference there as well. On 1924, he published an architectural De Stijl manifesto in the De Stijl magazine; he also had his first solo paintings exhibition in Weimar and develops Elementarism (which later on 1926 he posted a manifesto). The next year – on 1925 - he had a disagreement with Mondrian and break with him. On 1931, he co-found artists’ group Abstraction-Création in Paris. After a heart attack in Davos, Switzerland, van Doesburg died in Paris on 7 March 1931, his death is one of the reasons for the end of De Stijl movement (Warncke 1994, p. 207).
Robert van ‘t Hoff
Villa Henney 1916
Born 8 November 1887 in Rotterdam, Netherlands as Robbert van ‘t Hoff. He was a Dutch Architect and Furniture designer. (Wikipedia 2016). From 1906 he studied at the School of Art, Birmingham for 5 years, then for another 3 years he studied at the London Architectural Association, and published his own draft. Then from June 1913 to July 1914 he went to America and meets Frank Lloyd Wright. On 1916 he made his first contacts with Theo van Doesburg and Oud, and the next year he was founding member of the De Stijl. From 1917 to 1918 he design a boat named De Stijl with De Stijl interior, and the same year he also built a studio for Bart van der Leck. On 1919, he tried to gain support with P. Alma for Soviet artists in an international campaign. Unfortunately, on the same year, due to negative attitude, he breaks with van Doesburg, left De Stijl, and sold his boat. On 1922 he moved to UK and 6 years later, after an unsuccessful attempt to built a community in Coopersburg, Pennsylvania, he went back to Laren, where he had build two traditional houses with simple furniture, each for his mother and himself after the break with van Doesburg. On 1931 he moved to Switzerland, and 6 years later he moved to UK. He died on 25 April 1979 in New Milton, South England (Warncke 1994, p. 208).
Chapter 3 :
The influences
A. Movements Cubism Pablo Picasso popularizes the movement by applying this style to his artworks. Figures are abstracted into geometric planes, and classical norms for human form are broken. Cubism developed into an art movement that replaced the rendering of appearances with the endless possibilities of invented form. Cubism has a strong connection to the process of human’s vision. When the eyes scan the subject, the brain will try to combine the fragments into a whole picture. . By developing a new approach to visual compositions of art, cubism has changed the course of painting laws and to some extent graphic design as well. (Meggs 1998, p.250) The difference between cubism and De Stijl is that the purpose of cubism is to destroy form while De Stijl is to disregard form. And the similarity s that both of them had a purpose to simplify the composition or artwork. The composition is the point of the artwork than the actual meaning, and that is the connection between the two art movements. (T. F. Umaratih, 2016, pers. comm., May 10)
Georges Braque, ‘Bottle and Fishes’ , 1910
Umberto Boccioni 1913, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space
Futurism Fillippo Marinetti, an Italian Poet, launched futurism when he published his Manifesto of Futurism in the Paris newspaper on 1909 (Meggs 1998, p.250). On 1910, five artists that joined this movement published the Manifesto of the Futurists Painters. The futurist painters not only are influenced by cubism, but also attempted to express energy, motion and cinematic sequence in their works. Futurism itself had become a major influence on other movements, including De Stijl. They insisted that publishing manifestos, experiment in typography, as well as publicity stunts, forced graphic designers to re-think about the nature meaning of the typographic words and its meaning (Meggs 1998, p.256)
B. Architecture Swiss professor of Art Yve-Alain Bois said that the presence of De Stijl principles within architecture is, “quantitatively far less more important than is generally believed.” Then he continues by arguing that: “De Stijl’s architectural contribution consists in fact the projects exhibited by Van Doesburg and Van Eesteren in Galerie de l’Effort Moderne… and in the work of Gerrit Rietveld as a whole.” (Bois 1990, p.116, cited in Zonaga 2012, p.1) The nieuwe beelding’s (neoplasticism - new plastic art) transition from the two-dimensional plane to three-dimensional plane was explored by a few De Stijl members, and a few of them brought the architectural values to the surface. The Red and Blue Chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld on 1917 was considered as the first exploration of de Stijl movement in 3D objects. Rietveld also designed the Rietveld-Schröder House, which becomes the best-known examples of De Stijl architecture and arguably the only De Stijl building. Although Theo Van Doesburg and his theoretical design and model of the Galerie de l’Effort Moderne, made suggestion towards the architecture design of De Stijl, but the person who realized the first large scale physical consolidation of De Stijl, was Rietveld.
And Because of that, it is safe to say that it’s logically make sense to look at Rietveld–Schröder house as the insight of the De Stijl’s principles in architectural field. There are several aspects that needs to be understand before approaching the role of Rietveld–Schröder house contribution to modernist architecture, one of them is that the modernity of the 1920s – when the house was built – was way different with modernism today. Paul Overy said, “drained of the idealism and fantasy of the early modernism represented by icons of the modern movement. (Overy, Paul et al 1988, p.13, cited in Zonaga 2012, p.4) The house itself shows that functionalism was met in its purest form, because it was designed with such close cooperation with the intended resident and because of that the house successfully achieves its purpose as both a masterpiece in De Stijl architecture as well as a functional home design specifically for the intended resident. And with this, De Stijl became the part of Modernism that changed the relationship between space and person, and as an extension of person and the ground. De Stijl successfully upgraded its concepts in architecture through the Rietveld’s breakthrough as well as other artists. But, the philosophies could never be completely resolved, and following the death of Doesburg’s death in 1931, which leads to the collapsing of the movement, modernity keeps on moving forward. But the idea, lived on until now.
Rietveld–Schröder house, 1924
Modern De Stijl Architecture
Chapter 4 :
analysis
Comparison and Feedback De Stijl in graphic design has evolved along these years, starting from the publication of De Stijl Magazine, which represents the most significant work of graphic design from the movement. But the true major influences on the development of graphic design were the ideas of reduction of form and color. The early graphic design that is influenced by De Stijl not only includes the basic elements of the movement’s value - which are white background, black lines, and primary colors – but also influenced by the Russian typography which used geometrical shapes. As times flies by, De Stijl movements finally have established the originality of their specialty and have evolved for the modern needs. Not using all of the elements of De Stijl at the same time, but using several elements of it and making it so much more modern and appeal modern society. De Stijl can influence in so many ways, without simply using the usual pattern, which you expected to see, but the colors and the simplicity itself could help the product to appeal the consumer. (Thomson, J 2016, pers. comm., May 3)
Self Analysis De Stijl has become one of the most influential art movements or style for the past few decades, and definitely has become one of the style that actually still happening in our daily lives. In the perspective of a Graphic Design view, it is one of the simplest yet full of power to attract people or consumer or client. This style has a modern look that won’t be able to be forgotten for many years to come. Because De Stijl is a simple design style that can be so bold, and very interesting
References Meggs, Philip B. 1998, Meggs’ History of Graphic Design, 4th edn, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New Jersey “Piet Mondrian”, Wikipedia, wiki article, April 25 2016, accessed April 27 2016 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian> “Robert van ‘t Hoff”, Wikipedia, wiki article, April 9 2016, accessed April 27 2016 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_van_%27t_Hoff> “Theo van Doesburg”, Wikipedia, wiki article, April 4 2016, accessed April 27 2016 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Doesburg> Warncke, Carsten-Peter, 1994, De Stijl, Taschen, Germany. Zonaga, Anthony 2012, De Stijl – Abstraction in Architecture, College and Architecture, accessed April 27 2016 <http://collageandarchitecture.com/wp-content/up loads/2012/02/barr_destijl.pdf>
Counter Composition XIV: Theo van Doesburg 1925, Counter Composition XIV, Wikiart, accessed May 13 2016 < http://wikiart.org/en/theo-van-doesburg/counter-composi tion-xiv-1925 > First De Stijl: First Cover of De Stijl Magazine 1917, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/library_online_eb ooks/tom_turner_english_garden_design/abstract_style_of_ garden_design Futurism Artwork: Umberto Boccioni 1913, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, Wikipedia, accessed May 13 2016 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism> George Braqueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Artwork: Bottle and Fishes 1910, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 <http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/cub ism> Modern De Stijl Architecture: Lagoon Beach House 2012, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 <https://designalog.wordpress.com/2012/05/11/residential-ar chitecture-lagoon-beach-house-by-birrelli-architects>
Modern de Stijl: October 2011, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 <http://jamesmann1993.wordpress.com/2011/10> Mondrian’s Artwork: Victory Boogie Woogie 1944, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Boogie-Woogie> Piet Mondrian: Piet Mondrian, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 < http://www.arte.it/artista/pieter-cornelis-mondriaan-detto-pi et-mondrian-177 > Rietveld House: Rietveld, Schröder House 1924, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 <http://www.historiasztuki.com.pl/kodowane/003-02-01-ARCH WSP-MODERNIZM-eng.php> Theo van Doesburg: Theo van Doesburg in Davos 1931, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 < http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Doesburg > Van ‘t Hoff’s Artwork: Villa Henney 1916, digital photograph, accessed May 13 2016 < http://en.nai.nl/collection/view_the_collection/item/_rp_ko lom2-1_elementId/1_669536>