DE STIJL

Launched in the Netherlands in 1917 by its founder Theo van Doesburg. De Stijl artists sought universal laws of balance and synergy for art which could the guide for a new social order. The De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a nutshell, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a group of work spanning from 1917 to 1931.  

Theo van Doesburg

Alongside Van Doesburg, we find the painters Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszár, and Bart van der Leck. Also the architects Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van 't Hoff, and J. J. P. being the groups principal members.  The artistic philosophy that formed a basis for the group's work is known as neoplasticism — the new plastic art. 

De Stijl promoted pure abstraction and universality by reducing elements to the essentials. Form and colour was simplified and also visual compositions to the vertical and horizontal directions. The use of only primary colours and black and white.  De Stijl artists wanted to render an expression of the mathematical structure of the universe and the universal harmony of nature. They were greatly worried of the spiritual and intellectual climate of their time and wished to express the “general consciousness of their age.” For them the war at that time was of an obsolete age and that it was science and technology alongside political developments with would bring about a new era of collectivism and objectivity.   De Stijl adherents believed beauty arose from the absolute purity of the work. They sought to purify art by banning naturalistic representation, external values, and  subjective expression. The content of their work was to be universal harmony, the order that pervades the universe. Mondrain believed this possible and represented it with a body of paintings where he used incomparable spiritual and formal quality. His compositions of asymmetrical balance, tension between elements, achieved this absolute harmony.   

De Stijl became a natural vehicle for expressing the movement’s principles in graphic design. Huszár designed a logo for De Stijl with letters constructed from an open grid of squares and rectangles

When it came to typography and posters, Van Doesburg used horizontal and vertical structure to letterforms and the overall format of the layout 

Curved lines were removed and sans serif typefaces were put to use.   The type was mostly composed within tight rectangular blocks. Square shape was used as a thorough module for letterform design. In this way harmony of form was achieved, but removing curved and diagonal lines reduced character uniqueness and legibility. Asymmetrically balanced layouts were composed on an open implied grid.

Van Doesburg felt there was some odd similarities or better compliments between Dada and De Stijl.  He felt that Dada could remove the old order where as De Stijl could rebuild a new order upon the site of the pre war culture.  He experimented with this and also took to congress Constructivists and Dadaists in Weimar.  

However  Van Doesburg, who was a person of infinite  energy and

vast creativity passed away at the age of 47 in 1931 and with him also the De Stijl slowly after him, although some other kept using elements as time pressed on. 

Bibliography

Meggs, P. B., & Purvis, A. W. (2012). Meggs’ History of Graphic Design (Fifth ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wikipedia, t. f. (18, January 2015). De Stijl. Retrieved January 2015, 22, from Wikimedia Foundation, Inc: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Stijl