What is de Stijl?

1. A school of art originating in the Netherlands in 1917 and characterized by the use of rectangular shapes and primary colors. • The De Stijl (literally, "the style") art movement was founded by the painter and architect Theo van Doesburg in Leiden in 1917. • It encompassed a new type of style in modern art and architecture. This movement used the artistic talent of the artists by designing homes, buildings, and furniture. What is de Stijl? RTH

2. What is de Stijl? • A stripping down of the traditional forms of architecture, furniture, painting or sculpture into simple ‘basic’ geometric components or ‘elements’. • The composition from these separate ‘elements’ of formal configurations which are perceived as ‘wholes’, while remaining clearly constructed from individual and independent elements. • A studied and sometimes extreme asymmetry of composition or design. • An exclusive use of ‘orthogonal’ (horizontal and vertical lines or ‘elements’) and the ‘pigment primary’ colors (‘pure’ red, yellow and blue), plus the neutral color or tones (white, gray and black). Overy, Paul, De Stijl London: Thomas and Hudson Ltd. 1997. RTH

3. What is de Stijl? • Objective Perspective • Founder members of the group included the painter Mondrian, the sculptor Vantongerloo, the architect J.J.P. Oud and the designer and architect Rietveld. They were eager to develop a new aesthetic consciousness and an objective art based on clear principles. Their work and research extended to the fine arts, city and town planning, the applied arts and philosophy. RTH

4. What is de Stijl? Gerrit Rietveld Schröder Table Red and Blue Chair designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1917 Note the use of simple orthogonal lines & primary colors. Piet-Mondrian inspired bathroom cabinet RTH

5. What is de Stijl? • "The New Plastic in Painting", best expresses their ideas for reduction of form and simplistic abstraction: "The new plastic art...can only be based on the abstraction of all form and color, i.e. the straight line and the clearly defined primary color" (De Stijl Magazine, Lemoine, 1987, p.29). Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red 1939-42. Piet Mondrian. Oil on canvas. 72.5 x 69 cm. London, Tate Gallery. RTH

6. What is de Stijl? • While Mondrian's work adhered to the strict principles of Neo-Plasticism, Van Doesburg sought to broaden the movement's research projects into architecture, reconceiving the entire living environment. • A De Stijl picture represented a fragment of a larger project concerning space: the house as an interior space, and the city as an assembly of houses. • The austere forms of De Stijl were well suited to the geometric structures favored by the International Modernist movement, while the primary colors favored by the painters could be used as decorative elements to articulate an otherwise plain facade. Rietveld Schroder HouseThe NetherlandsGerrit Thomas Rietveld 1924 RTH

7. Alternate Views & Detail RTH

8. Other Architectural Works Weissenhof Estate housing, JJP Oud, Stuttgart Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art RTH Café de Unie, JJP Oud, Rotterdam