100 years of De Stijl
We speak of concrete and not abstract painting because nothing is more concrete, more real than a line, a color, a surface.
De Stijl (The Style) was a dutch based movement which evolved from 1917–1932, embracing basic visual elements, gemoetric forms and primary colours. Many believe it was a fight back against the over decorative style of Art Deco. The movement, De Stijl, set the style and lay the foundations for what the world came to see as ‘modern’. It was mostly led by the painters Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, along with Vilmos Huszar, Bart van der Leck, and the architects Gerrit Rietveld and Jan Wils. The members of the movement wanted to redefine art and to bring it back to its essence and give it a new set of rules. They felt art was all about line and colour and aimed to convey the harmony of this relationship.
Developing after the horrors and tragedies of World War 1 and the wish to rebuild society in it’s aftermath, ‘De Stijl’ created a new visual language that would symbolise transformation and construct an ideal “model” for a new world through furniture, interior design, architecture and sculpture. The art movement ‘De Stijl’ was built up and developed by the magazine named ‘De Stijl’ which was created by the Dutch artist The Van Doesburg, in 1917 until his death in 1931 when a final issue was published in memory of Van Doesburg. It was printed on cheap stock with illustrations printed in light green or grey. Although the magazine never sold more than 300 copies and was created with such pooor quality materials, it was the Netherlands’ most influential contribution to the modernist movement and continued to influence across Europe after the publication had stopped. ‘De Stijl’s’ impact on the design world is still being seen today in typography, architecture and graphic design.
The most influential piece of work displaying the sensibility and simpleness of ‘De Stijl’ was the original Masthead, created by Huszar in 1917. An abstract woodcut which consisted of various sized black rectangles on a white background. The arrangement of the rectangles create a strong negative space which forms a charged composition. The fully justified block of bold text below displays the magazine and its editor to the reader, while above, the various rectangles shaped together form the words ‘De Stijl’. Huszar’s design remained the cover until 1921 when van Doesburg left behind the mosaic-like type and created a horizontal format with a bold sans-serif font with Mondrian. The words ‘De Stijl’ are layered over the letters ‘NB’ which stand for Nieuwe Bleeding ( ‘New imaging’). Mondrian’s motto for the ‘De Stijl’ movement. The layout was very bold and daring, showing a combination of symmetry and asymmetry.
The foundation of De Stijl lay in paintings, mainly Mondrian’s carefully placed and balanced squares and rectangles in primary colours, seperated by bold black lines. Mondrians paintings are among De Stijl’s lasting icons and lay the foundations of abstract art. Mondrian’s style and use of a simplified pictorial vocabulary were vital in the development of modern art and his abstract work remains influential in the design world today.
Being the founder of De Stijl, Theo van Doesburg drew and created an alphabet to express the typographic ideas of ‘De Stijl’. He drew a standard alphabet on a 5x5 grid. It was not made to be legible, which is obvious from the unconventional design of the ‘R’, ‘X’ and ‘K’. Van Doesburg allowed for subtle variations in the forms of the letters if the text needed ‘justified’, he would just extend or condense the letters. His lettering was always monoline, no matter if the letters were narrowed down. His alphabet was not created for aesthetic or systematic use and letters would be redrawn at will, allowing him to alter the letters fr various design jobs. One of Doesburg’s best known designs using the alphabet was a logo for the League of Revolutionary-Socialist Intellectuals. It is a good example of how he could adapt the width of his letters to create justified rectangles. The logo was used widely along with a monogram on letterheads, envelopes and a manifesto.
Gerrit Rietveld, a strong influencer and contributer towards the ‘De Stijl’ movement. His most famous and ‘De Stijl’s’ most famous building is the Rietveld Schröder House, argued as the only true ‘De Stijl’ building. It was commisioned by Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder, who wanted it to be designed without walls. She wanted it to be free and for the inside and outside to be able to connect easily. The house is situated at the end of a terrace in Utrecht and has one wall connecting to the house beside it. It stands out like a sore thumb and has no attempt to fit into the neighbourhood. Inside, there is no accumulation of rooms but a changeable open area. There are various lines of primary colours shown on the building, but mainly the surfaces are shades of grey, and white and black. There is a thin line between the inside and outside space. The house is now used as a museum and is a UNESCO heritage site since 2000.
Overall the creation of the ‘De Stijl’ magazine and movement by Theo van Doesburg has created various artworks, structures and designs which play an important part in the development of the art and design world. Today, we can still see and feel the impact of these works and how they have influenced the modern world.
