De Stijl Intro

De Stijl is the name used for an approach to art and architecture based in the Netherlands in the 1920's. It is both recognizable and also fuzzy.
This was an attempt to unite art, architecture and other arts in a coherent new approach that would revolutionize the world. Did it?

We recognize De Stijl classic art and architecture by abstraction, geometry and reliance on primary colors of black, white, red, blue and yellow - which may be one of the most recognized influence of the Netherlands in the twentieth century.
At the same time, De Stijl was a magazine run by one man who seemed to quarrel with almost everyone and the movement as such fell apart when he died in the early 1930s.
Like many things, the story of De Stijl is the story of personalities and relationships.

' The object of this little journal is to help develop a new awareness of beauty.'

"This, in translation, was the first sentence of the first issue of the first volume of De Stijl, published in 1917. Theo van Doesburg (1883 - 1931), conscripted for military service during 1914 - 1916, had been putting out feelers to members of the national avant-garde... One of the first was Paris-based Piet Mondrian (1872 - 1944), who had been stranded in the Netherlands by the war and in those years was producing work of an increasingly abstract nature. In the first months of 1916, Van Doesburg widened his network to include the architect J.J.P. Oud (1890 - 1963) and the Hungarian painter Vilmos Huszar (1884 - 1960). The painter Bart van der Leck (1876 - 1958) and the architect Jan Wils (1891 - 1972).
"As early as 1915, Van Doesburg had felt the need for a journal of his own as a platform for his ideas about art and for the sound poems he was writing. It would take until November 1917 before it got that far and the first issue of De Stijl was published. Van Doesburg originally wanted to call the journal De Rechte Lijn (the Straight Line) but ultimately opted for De Stijl, a title that seems to infer that its subject was the best, if not the only possibly modern style. From then on, the journal appeared more or less monthly to begin with but later at ever increasing intervals until 1928...
"Vilmos Huszar designed the title and logo of the first volumes of De Stijl but it was mainly Van Doesburg who would dictate the journal's contents and range. Mondrian and Van der Leck were unenthusiastic about bringing architects into De Stijl. They felt that in that case Van Doesburg, who was keen to involve as many artistic disciplines and national and international modernists as possible, should take full responsibility for the journal. All the same, it was Mondrian more than anyone who set the theoretical tone in the initial years with a series of articles collectively headed 'De Nieuwe Beelding' (literally 'new imaging,' but usually rendered as Neo-Plasticism).
Meanwhile, Van Doesburg enthusiastically drew others to the journal, such as the architects Gerrit Rietveld (1884 - 1964) and Robert van 't Hoff (1887 - 1979) and foreign artists. In a later stage, Van Doesburg added articles on poetry, theater, and music and published his own Dadaist poetry and literature under assumed names. As time went by, the journal increasingly became a vehicle for Van Doesburg's contacts and interests. The other team members, some of whom had never met, let alone that there had ever been a general staff meeting, withdrew one by one or were shown the door by Van Doesburg. The very last issue of De Stijl was published in 1932 following Van Doesburg's death.

Introduction (from De Stijl in the Netherlands, The 100 best places to visit) on the beginning of a magazine that turned into an art movement

Theo van Doesburg 1883 Urecht - Davos 1931

The Hague Gemeente Museum: "Born Emile Keeper, he adopted his stepfather's name, becoming Theo van Doesburg. In 1908 this became his nom de guerre when he exhibited drawings that enabled him to 'move aside the curtain that obscures his spiritual life.' In doing so, he reflected a commonly help opinion in the Netherlands regarding the function of art. He was enchanted by Kandinsky's abstract art when he encountered it in 1915. The door to a similar 'modern energy' when he met Mondrian in 1916 and they eagerly began to exchange ideas. A radical new modern abstract art would change every aspect of life. Van Doesburg established De Stijl as an instrument of propaganda and took up the fight against anyone who appeared to contradict him. He ensured that, by 1924, De Stijl set the tone in everything. He stole a march on Mondrian with elementarism, a fierce rebuttal of Mondrian's ideas, laying the foundations for the concrete abstract art that became so influential after van Doesburg's death."

Theo van Doesburg
The Cardplayers 1916-1917
Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Theo van Doesburg
Composition IX, Opus 18:
Further Imagining of the Cardplayers 1925
Kunstmuseum Den Haag

this is an abstraction of the first Cardplayers, above

Theo van Doesburg, Composition V, Design for a Stained Glass, 1917/1918
Zurich Kunsthaus

Vilmos Huszar 1884 - 1960

Vilmos Huszar, Composition II (Skaters) 1917
Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Vilmos Huszar
Color Scheme for boys' bedroom in home of the Bruynzeel family
1920
Kunstmuseum Den Haag

Cornelis Van Esteren 1897 - 1988

Museum label: "Young and spirited, and difficult to keep on track, Van Doesburg found when he worked with Van Eesteren in Paris. It was not quite like that, however. Van Eesteren was from a family of builders and he had learnt the architect's trade from the bottom up. He was, therefore, very practical. He was also besotted with design because it allowed the 'spiritual utility' of the material to manifest itself. Van Eesteren learnt a lot from his Parisian experiments with Van Doesburg: that abstract, non-constructive aspects of a a design can liberate the creative process. In his later urban planning designs, logical thought, and an eye for organization and efficiency, went hand in hand with undogmatic and imaginative solutions. He referred to himself as an architect-urbanist concerned with design in a basic way.

J.J.P. Oud 1890 - 1963

"J.J.P. Oud had difficulty finding his way as a young architect, until seeing the work of American architects in a slide show at Berlage's home one evening. Becomes captivated by ceramicist Willem Brouwer, who is a zealous advocate of a society based on traditional arts and crafts. Our helps Van Doesburg establish De Stijl. From the outset, the two wrangle over the question of the role of color in architecture. Our realizes progressively more innovative architecture projects for Rotterdam city council, shaping his ideas about De Stijl, but gradually turns away from collaboration with artists because he believes a pure architecture is a better way to achieve a spiritual revolution. Believes theorizing about architecture is nonsense; only 'subordination to the task' can guide the design process. This leads him, in the 1920's, to a highly radical form of functionalism based on how people use buildings on a daily basis. Exhibitions in the United States ensure he comes to be regarded as one of the four pioneers of modern architecture."
The Story of De Stijl, Mondrian to Van Doesburg. Janssen and White

Bart Van der Leck (1876 - 1958)