De Stijl

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“There is an old and a new consciousness of time. The old is connected with the individual. The new is connected with the universal. The struggle of the individual against the universal is revealing itself in the world of was as well as in the art of the present day.” (van Doesburg. 1918. Manifesto[via (Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette, 2011)]

The Dutch art movement De Stijl(the Style) or Neoplasticism, evolved after a time of war and conflict in an attempt to unify life. Artists, typographers, designers and architects influenced by the De Stijl movement sort universal harmony and attempted to achieve this by striping the style of everything that makes us individuals. The Style used mathematics, primary colours and black lines in creating highly abstract creations. While De Stijl was greatly influenced by the cubism movement that pre dates the Great War, De Stijl took the abstract limits that cubism refused to cross and shattered them beyond repair. (Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette, 2011)

The founder of this movement was founded by Theo van Doesburg who started a journal titled De Stijl and a group of artists and architects in 1917. This journal ran for 15 years, during which the artists and architects of van Doesburg’s group came and went as their ideas and influences developed.( De Stijl, 2012) In 1932 the last edition of the journal was releced by van Doesburg’s wife as a commemorative issue a year after van Doesburg’s death. By this time all those originally associated with De Stijl had moved on and shortly after the death of its founder, The Style dissipated as the world moved on. (Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette, 2011)

~Angie

De Stijl. (2012). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/566242/De-Stijl

Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette. (2011). DE STIJL   1917-1931. Retrieved from http://www.arthistoryunstuffed.com/de-stijl/

Category : Weekly research