De stijl

De Stijl

De stijl originally started as a project by Dutch artists and designers. De stijl is translated to ‘the style’, De stijl inspired other modern movements, modern trends of the early 20^th century for example: abstract works, cubism, industrial revolution and the birth of abstract art.

De Stijl was created by the Dutch impressionist artists Piet Modrian and Theo Van Doesburg, Van Doesburg decided the formation of De Stijl after being highly influenced by the works of Wassily Kandinsky who worked in an abstract fashion. Van Doesburg determined that abstract was the movement of the future. Piet Mondrian worked in highly geometric work. Geometry was a symbol of efficiency and the path of the future.

Artists, designers, writers, typographers, architects started taking interest in this movement. De stijl was about forming ideas by different inidvidduals. A magazine was published bearing the De Stijl name this was distributed throughout Holland, each issue had different contributors. Some of the main contributes: Gerrit Rietveld (Furniture designer) Piet Mondrian (Painter) and Theo Van Doesburg (Painter, writer poet and architect)

De stijl was mainly built of numerous small projects, which surrounded furniture, art and architecture, typography and sculpture. The most famous works came from Mondrian and his composition, the use of Primary colours, shades of black and white and orthogonal lines. Most De Stijl artist was influenced by Mondrian’s works. The Orthographic black and white lines were used constantly throught various projects in the movement. Gerrit Rietvelds most famous piece of furniture was the reb and blue chair; it was influenced by Mondrian’s paintings. He followed the theme of bringing Mondrain’s paitnings to life on furniture.

The magazine spread across Europe, in 1922 the constructivist merged with De Stijl. De Stijls strong orthogonal lines inspired the façade of the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus associates with modernism, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius became known as the fathers of modernism, the impact of the De Stijl did not stop, De Stijl’s a big impact on the world Of Modernism.

De stijl popularity grew and more people contributed to the magazine. Van Doesburg started suggesting and tried to introduce diagonal lines and secondary colours into De Stijl. Piet Mondrian was one of the first members to leave as a result of conflict. People started losing interest and eventually it died out.

Reference:

Micheal McFarlane, my summary of de stijl,12th May 2010, http://crossdrilled.blogspot.com, retrieved 10/11/2013, http://crossdrilled.blogspot.com/2010/05/if-u-are-most-boring-person-read-this.html

Charlotte Jirousek , De Stijl http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/destijl/decstijl.htm

  , 1995, retrieved 10/11/2013  http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/destijl/decstijl.htm,