Misplaced Pages

#365634

81-525: De Stijl ( / d ə ˈ s t aɪ l / , Dutch: [də ˈstɛil] ; 'The Style'), incorporating the ideas of neoplasticism , was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden , consisting of artists and architects. The term De Stijl is also used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 created in the Netherlands . Proponents of De Stijl advocated pure abstraction and universality by

162-405: A book titled Le Néo-Plasticisme . Around 1921, the group's character started to change. From the time of van Doesburg's association with Bauhaus , other influences started playing a role. These influences were mainly Malevich and Russian Constructivism , to which not all members agreed. In 1924 Mondrian broke with the group after van Doesburg proposed the theory of elementarism, suggesting that

243-399: A conscious and systematic way." Rietveld worked side by side with Schröder-Schräder to create the house. He sketched the first possible design for the building; Schröder-Schrader was not pleased. She envisioned a house that was free from association and could create a connection between the inside and outside. The house is one of the best known examples of De Stijl -architecture and arguably

324-615: A diagonal line is more vital than horizontal and vertical ones. In addition, the De Stijl group acquired many new "members". Dadaist influences, such as I. K. Bonset 's poetry and Aldo Camini 's "antiphilosophy" generated controversy as well. Only after Van Doesburg's death was it revealed that Bonset and Camini were two of his pseudonyms. Theo van Doesburg died in Davos , Switzerland, in 1931. His wife, Nelly, administered his estate. Because of van Doesburg's pivotal role within De Stijl,

405-590: A different function, a harmonious connection is possible. In 1923, following the De Stijl architectural exhibition in Paris, Van Doesburg also involved the 'unenclosed (= open) space relationship' of furniture art on architecture. He subsequently regarded architecture as a 'synthesis of new visual expression'. 'In the new architecture, architecture is understood as a part, the summary of all the arts, in its most elementary appearance, as its essence', according to Van Doesburg. Although countless artists embraced and applied

486-464: A new art, whose essential qualities were spiritual, entirely abstract, and rational. In his Principles of Neo-Plastic Art , Van Doesburg distinguishes between two types of visual art in art history: works that arise from an internal idea (ideo-plastic art), and works that arise from external matter (physio-plastic art). He demonstrates this with an abstract model of the Egyptian god Horus and

567-454: A painting together, with the express intention that all traces of the individual share would be removed". Differences of opinion appeared between the two as early as 1919, however in 1922 there was a rift in their relationship over the application of neo-plastic principles to architecture and Van Doesburg's integration of the element of time into Mondrian's neo-plastic theory. When Van Doesburg and Mondrian first made public their ideas about

648-456: A passive element (space). He then divides the visual media of architecture into positive elements (line, plane, volume, space and time) and negative elements (void and material). By 1923, the inclusion of volume and time as elements of neoplasticism caused serious rifts between Mondrian and Oud, and later with Van Doesburg. In 1920, Van Doesburg met the filmmakers Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling . They worked on short, abstract films, based on

729-453: A realistic statue of a Diadumenos respectively. When an artist experiences reality, his aesthetic experience can be expressed as either a material depiction, or an abstract formation. Van Doesburg regards depiction as an 'indirect' form of artistic expression; only abstract formation based on an artist's true aesthetic experience of reality represents a pure form of artistic expression, as expressed by Mondrian in all his essays. According to

810-475: A reduction to the essentials of form and colour . They simplified visual compositions to vertical and horizontal, using only black , white and primary colors . De Stijl is also the name of a journal – published by the Dutch painter, designer, writer, and critic Theo van Doesburg  – that propagated the group's theories. Along with van Doesburg, the group's principal members were

891-554: A strong asymmetricality; the predominant use of pure primary colors with black and white; and the relationship between positive and negative elements in an arrangement of non-objective forms and lines. The name De Stijl is supposedly derived from Gottfried Semper 's Der Stil in den technischen und tektonischen Künsten oder Praktische Ästhetik (1861–1863), which Curl suggests was mistakenly believed to advocate materialism and functionalism . The "plastic vision" of De Stijl artists, also called Neo-Plasticism, saw itself as reaching beyond

SECTION 10

#1732772663366

972-468: A symbolic or decorative application of the visual means was virtually impossible. Van Doesburg's first definition of architecture comes from his series of articles The new movement in painting from 1916, in which he writes that "for the architect, space is the first conditions for composition" and that the architect "breaks up space through size proportions realized in stone". He added two elements to this starting point in 1925: an active element (mass) and

1053-435: A utopia. As he states in the same lecture: " Never, anywhere is there an ending. The process is unceasing ." A number of contributors to De Stijl mention the fourth dimension several times in passing – for example Gino Severini in his article entitled "La Peinture D'Avant-Garde" . These types of passages also occur in other avant-garde movements and have never really led to concrete results – except for

1134-569: Is mainly determined by mass ratio, rhythm and tension between the vertical and horizontal (to name just a few visual means in architecture). Many of these ideas come from the German architect Gottfried Semper , for example the great emphasis on walls as a plane and as a divider of space and the principle of 'unity in the multiplicity' (the realisation that buildings, furniture, sculptures and paintings can be seen not only as units, but also as assemblages of separate elements). Semper's ideas were spread in

1215-506: Is situated in Utrecht , at the end of a terrace , but it makes no attempt to relate to its neighbouring buildings (although it shares an exterior wall with the last house in the terrace). It faces a motorway built in the 1960s. Inside there is no static accumulation of rooms, but a dynamic, changeable open zone. The ground floor can still be termed traditional; ranged around a central staircase are kitchen and three sit/bedrooms. Additionally,

1296-419: Is the synthesis. Van Doesburg developed the theory of neoplasticism to include an evolutionary and therefore temporal element. From 1919 onwards, through lectures and publications, Van Doesburg worked to demonstrate that art slowly developed as a means of expression from the natural to a means of expression of the spiritual. According to him, the spiritual and the natural in art were not always in balance in

1377-642: Is translated as Die neue Gestaltung . The English plastic and the French plastique stem from the Greek plassein , [meaning] to mold or to form, but do not quite encompass the creative and structural signification of beelding . Some authors have translated nieuwe beelding as new art . The term néo-plasticisme [neo-plasticism] first appeared in Mondrian's Le Néo-plasticisme: Principe Général de l'Equivalence Plastique , [Neo-plasticism:

1458-911: The Eames House by Charles and Ray Eames, and the interior decoration for the Aubette dance hall in Strasbourg, designed by Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Jean Arp and van Doesburg. Works by De Stijl members are scattered all over the world, but De Stijl-themed exhibitions are organised regularly. Museums with large De Stijl collections include the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague (which owns the world's most extensive, although not exclusively De Stijl-related, Mondrian collection) and Amsterdam 's Stedelijk Museum , where many works by Rietveld and Van Doesburg are on display. The Centraal Museum of Utrecht has

1539-472: The Hegelian philosophical tradition. Unlike Mondrian, Van Doesburg was better informed of the latest developments in theory and adopted many ideas from other theorists, including Wilhelm Worringer . But although Worringer regarded abstraction as the opposite of naturalism , according to Van Doesburg, art history as a whole developed towards abstraction. Van Doesburg borrowed the idea that art and architecture

1620-432: The tesseractical studies by Theo van Doesburg from 1924. Joost Baljeu wrote in 1968 that the fourth dimension can be compared to the expansion or contraction of objects due to the action of universal forces (temperature) and that thus the four-dimensional view is nothing other than the conclusion that all things are constantly on the move. " Reality is not static, but a dynamic process in space and time. ... When one uses

1701-500: The universal over the individual, the spiritual over the natural, the abstract over the real, the non-figurative over the figurative, the intuitive over the rational; all of which were summarised by Mondrian as the superiority of pure plastic over the plastic . The neo-plasticists of De Stijl expressed their vision (plastic) in terms of 'pure' elements, not found in nature: straight lines, right angles, primary colours and precise relationships. This disassociation from nature created

SECTION 20

#1732772663366

1782-488: The "perfect straight line") in the neoplatonic philosophy of M. H. J. Schoenmaekers . The De Stijl movement was also influenced by Neopositivism . The works of De Stijl would influence the Bauhaus style and the international style of architecture as well as clothing and interior design. However, it did not follow the general guidelines of an "-ism" (e.g., Cubism , Futurism , Surrealism ), nor did it adhere to

1863-634: The 24th session in Cairns , Australia . The committee decided to apply criterion i and ii, and said about the house: The Rietveld Schröderhuis in Utrecht is an icon of the Modern Movement in architecture and an outstanding expression of human creative genius in its purity of ideas and concepts as developed by the De Stijl movement. (...) With its radical approach to design and the use of space,

1944-607: The Hungarian artist Vilmos Huszár . In 1917 the cooperation of these artists, together with the poet Antony Kok , resulted in the founding of De Stijl. The young architect Gerrit Rietveld joined the group in 1918. At its height De Stijl had 100 members and the journal had a circulation of 300. During those first few years, the group was still relatively homogeneous, although Van der Leck left in 1918 due to artistic differences of opinion. Manifestos were being published, signed by all members. The social and economic circumstances of

2025-663: The Netherlands by Berlage , the spiritual father of modern architecture in the Netherlands. It was also Berlage who, after a visit to the United States in 1911, introduced the Netherlands to the work of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright . Wright's ideas found favour with the architects of De Stijl, not least because of 'his mystical contrast between the horizontal and vertical, the external and internal, nature and culture'. The architect J. J. P. Oud talks about

2106-536: The New Plastic ". Notwithstanding this critique, Victoria George provides a succinct explanation of Mondrian's terminology: What Mondrian called 'the New Plastic' was named as such because 'plastic' signified “that which creates an image”. It was New because its terms of reference had not been encountered before in painting. The image, that is, 'the Plastic', cleansed of superficialities and references to

2187-445: The New Plastic art, both painters were influenced by theosophy . Mondrian wrote the first theoretical treatise in his then hometown Laren, North Holland . Here he met the theosophist-author Mathieu Schoenmaekers . Mondrian adopted some of Schoenmaekers' terminology, including the Dutch term beeldend . Van Doesburg and Mondrian's ideas about the spiritual come from Kandinsky's autobiography Über das geistige in der Kunst [On

2268-610: The Rietveld Schröderhuis occupies a seminal position in the development of architecture in the modern age. Only few years after construction of this building Polish architect Stanisław Brukalski built his own house in Warsaw in 1929 likely inspired by Rietveld Schröderhuis which he visited. His Polish example of modern house was awarded bronze medal in Paris expo in 1937 . The house was honored in two euro coins issued by

2349-416: The absolute truth, is imagined through the invisible ]. Mondrian calls this process 'internalization'. In addition, no painting is created by chance. Each painting is an interplay of space, plane, line and color. These are the plastic (visual) means in painting. If the artist wants to approach the truth as closely as possible, he dissolves the natural form into these most elementary visual means. In this way

2430-406: The abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour". With these constraints, his art allows only primary colours and non-colours, only squares and rectangles, only straight and horizontal or vertical lines. The De Stijl movement posited the fundamental principle of the geometry of the straight line, the square, and the rectangle, combined with

2511-479: The art world. Around 1915, Van Doesburg started meeting the artists who would eventually become the founders of the journal. He first met Piet Mondrian at an exhibition in Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam . Mondrian, who had moved to Paris in 1912 (and there, changed his name from "Mondriaan"), had been visiting the Netherlands when war broke out. He could not return to Paris, and was staying in

De Stijl - Misplaced Pages Continue

2592-456: The artist determines to what extent he allows these 'plastic means' to dominate or whether he remains as close as possible to his subject. There is therefore a duality in painting and sculpture  – and to a lesser extent in architecture , music and literature  – between the idea of the artist and the matter of the world around us. The Dutch neo-plasticists, imbued with Calvinism and Theosophy , preferred

2673-437: The artists' community of Laren , where he met Bart van der Leck and regularly saw M. H. J. Schoenmaekers . In 1915, Schoenmaekers published Het nieuwe wereldbeeld ("The New Worldview"), followed in 1916 by Beginselen der beeldende wiskunde ("Principles of Visual Mathematics"). These two publications would greatly influence Mondrian and other members of De Stijl. Van Doesburg also knew J. J. P. Oud and

2754-534: The building that were made out of concrete. The walls were made of brick and plaster. The window frames and doors were made from wood as well as the floors, which were supported by wooden beams. To support the building, steel girders with wire mesh were used. The World Heritage Committee inscribed the Rietveld Schröder House on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites on 2 December 2000, during

2835-415: The changing appearance of natural things to bring an audience into intimate contact with an immutable core of reality, a reality that was not so much a visible fact as an underlying spiritual vision. In general, De Stijl proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting, by using only straight horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms. Furthermore, their formal vocabulary

2916-514: The collaboration between the architect and the painter. It was then the painter's task to 'recapture' the flat surface of architecture. Van Doesburg wrote about this: Architecture provides constructive, therefore closed, plastic. In this she is neutral towards painting, which provides open plasticity through flat colour representation. In this respect, painting is neutral towards architecture. Architecture joins together, binds together. Painting loosens, dissolves. Because they essentially have to perform

2997-534: The confusing terminology for English readers: The terms beeldend and nieuwe beelding have caused more problems of interpretation than any others in the writing of Mondrian and other De Stijl contributors who adopted them. These Dutch terms are really untranslatable, containing more nuances that can be satisfactorily conveyed by a single English word. Beeldend means something like ‘'image forming'’ or ‘'image creating'’; nieuwe beelding means ‘'new image creation'’, or perhaps new structure . In German,

3078-533: The country after 1914 and were thus effectively isolated from the international art world—and in particular, from Paris , which was its centre then. During that period, Theo van Doesburg started looking for other artists to set up a journal and start an art movement. Van Doesburg was also a writer, poet, and critic, who had been more successful writing about art than working as an independent artist. Quite adept at making new contacts due to his flamboyant personality and outgoing nature, he had many useful connections in

3159-588: The face of the world, but it would also usher in a new way of thinking. With the understanding of the aesthetics of the material, a life-changing experience results in the development of knowledge and wisdom. Rietveld Schr%C3%B6der House The Rietveld Schröder House ( Dutch : Rietveld Schröderhuis ) (also known as the Schröder House ) in Utrecht (Prins Hendriklaan 50) was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children. She commissioned

3240-673: The first issue of the journal and in the first of a series of articles by Mondrian entitled De Nieuwe Beelding in de schilderkunst . The expression " nieuwe beelding " is believed to derive from the work of Mathieu Schoenmaekers , who used the term in his 1915 book Het Nieuwe Wereldbeeld ,; copies of books by Schoenmaekers were found in Mondrian's library. Introducing their translation of Mondrian's publications, Holtzman and James wrote: The Dutch verb beelden and substantive beelding signify form-giving, creation, and by extension image – as do gestalten and Gestaltung in German, where Neo-Plastic[ism]

3321-604: The general principle of plastic equivalence]. Mondrian described the essay as a "condensed adaptation of the ideas in his Trialogue". The book was translated into French with the help of Mondrian's old friend, Dr Rinus Ritsema van Eck. In the 1925 German edition - the fifth in the Bauhaus Bauhausbücher series (translated by Rudolf F. Hartogh) - the term néo-plasticisme is translated as Neue Gestaltung [New Design]. Between 1935 and 1936, Mondrian wrote an essay in French, translated into English with

De Stijl - Misplaced Pages Continue

3402-556: The group did not survive. Individual members remained in contact, but De Stijl could not exist without a strong central character. Thus, it may be wrong to think of De Stijl as a close-knit group of artists. The members knew each other, but most communication took place by letter. For example, Mondrian and Rietveld never met in person. Many, though not all, artists did stay true to the movement's basic ideas, even after 1931. Rietveld, for instance, continued designing furniture according to De Stijl principles, while Mondrian continued working in

3483-553: The group's three-dimensional works, vertical and horizontal lines are positioned in layers or planes that do not intersect, thereby allowing each element to exist independently and unobstructed by other elements. This feature can be found in the Rietveld Schröder House and the Red and Blue Chair . De Stijl was influenced by Cubist painting as well as by the mysticism and the ideas about "ideal" geometric forms (such as

3564-492: The help of Winifred Nicholson and published in the book Circle: International Survey of Constructive Art as "Plastic Art and Pure Plastic Art (Figurative Art and Non-Figurative Art)". After moving to the United States , Mondrian wrote several articles in English with the help of Harry Holtzman and Charmion von Wiegand , in which he maintained the use of the term 'plastic'. In his book "De Stijl", Paul Overy reflects on

3645-439: The house included a garage, which was very strange because Truus did not own a car. The living area upstairs, stated as being an attic to satisfy the fire regulations of the planning authorities, in fact forms a large open zone except for a separate toilet and a bathroom . Rietveld wanted to leave the upper level as it was. Mrs Schröder, however, felt that as living space it should be usable in either form, open or subdivided. This

3726-445: The house to be designed preferably without walls. Both Rietveld and Schröder espoused progressive ideals that included "a fierce commitment to a new openness about relationships within their own families and to truth in their emotional lives. Bourgeois notions of respectability and propriety, with their emphasis on discipline, hierarchy, and containment would be eliminated through architectural design that countered each of these aspects in

3807-655: The ideas of neoplasticism during the interwar period , its origins can mainly be attributed to Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. They have worked to publicize their ideas through a stream of publications, exhibitions and lectures. Moreover, from 1917 to 1924 they were the constant factors in the otherwise quite turbulent history of the Style Movement . Their views on art were so close that some works by Van Doesburg and Mondrian are almost completely interchangeable. Van Doesburg's widow, Nelly van Doesburg , commented: "I further remember that Mondriaan and 'Does' once made

3888-594: The introduction of the De Stijl , the movement was a reaction to the Dutch expressionist architecture of the Amsterdam School movement. Mondrian sets forth the delimitations of neoplasticism in his essay "Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art". He writes, "this new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary, it should find its expression in

3969-510: The largest Rietveld collection worldwide; it also owns the Rietveld Schröder House, Rietveld's adjacent "show house", and the Rietveld Schröder Archives. The movement inspired the design aesthetics of Rumyantsevo and Salaryevo stations of Moscow Metro opened in 2016. Neoplasticism The term 'plastic arts' comes from the Greek word plastikos , which means "to mold or shape". This word perfectly describes

4050-543: The natural world, is the New Plastic in Painting . According to neoplastic principles, every work of art (painting, sculpture, building, piece of music, book, etc.,) is created intentionally. It is the product of a series of aesthetic choices and, to a lesser extent, of what the work of art represents. For example, the event depicted in the painting Et in Arcadia ego , by Nicolas Poussin , never took place. Even though

4131-732: The natural, while in the Middle Ages the spiritual predominated. In the Renaissance, art again turned towards the natural, only to be surpassed by the Baroque. The Biedermeier and the Idealism and Reform in the nineteenth century restored the balance somewhat, ending in the time of Neoplasticism ( Neue Gestaltung ), in which the polarity between the natural and spiritual was completely abolished. However, Van Doesburg did not see his version of neoplasticism as an ideal final stage or as

SECTION 50

#1732772663366

4212-404: The nature of plastic arts, which involve the use of materials that can be molded or shaped. Madrid Academy of Art Mondrian, Van der Leck and Van Doesburg first set out the philosophical basis for the art theory known originally as "Nieuwe Beelding" , but known today as "Neoplasticism", in a new art journal named De Stijl [Style]. The term appears in an editorial by Van Doesburg in

4293-417: The new visual art, every work of art consists of a number of basic elements, which they called 'visual means'. According to the artists of De Stijl, these 'visual means', unlike representation, are entirely inherent to art. If one wanted to produce a work of art 'according to art', one had to use only these basic elements. Mondrian wrote: If the pure visual expression of art lies in the proper transformation of

4374-487: The only true De Stijl building. Mrs. Schröder lived in the house until her death in 1985. The house was restored by Bertus Mulder and now is a museum open for visits, run by the Centraal Museum . It is a listed monument since 1976 and UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2000. The Rietveld Schröder House constitutes both inside and outside a radical break with all architecture before it. The two-storey house

4455-651: The painter achieves universal harmony. The role of the artist (the individual or the subjective) is limited to determining the relationship between these visual means (the composition). The artist thus becomes a mediator between the spectator and the absolute (the objective). Following Schoenmaekers - who associated the physical with the horizontal, and the spiritual with the vertical - the neo-plastic painters applied horizontal and vertical lines with rectangular areas of color in order to radically simplify painting, purifying art of those elements that are not directly related to expressing "pure reality". According to Van Doesburg,

4536-481: The painters Piet Mondrian , Vilmos Huszár , Bart van der Leck , the architects Gerrit Rietveld , Robert van 't Hoff , the sculptor and painter Georges Vantongerloo , the architect J. J. P. Oud and the writer Antony Kok . The artistic philosophy that formed a basis for the group's work is known as neoplasticism  – the new plastic art (or Nieuwe Beelding in Dutch). According to van Doesburg in

4617-529: The past and neoplasticism would restore this balance. The diagram reproduced here, which Van Doesburg probably drew up as a result of the lectures he gave in Jena, Weimar and Berlin in 1921, clearly indicates the extent to which Van Doesburg thought how nature and spirit were related in the various Western European cultural periods. He begins on the far right with the ancient Egyptians and Greeks, where nature and spirit were still in balance. The ancient Romans focused on

4698-425: The plastic means and their application - the composition - then the plastic means must be in complete accord with what they express. If they are to be a direct expression of the universal, then they cannot be other than universal i.e. abstract. While Mondrian limited himself to painting, Van Doesburg believed in the collaboration of all arts to achieve a new Gesamtkunstwerk [total work of art]. To achieve this, it

4779-431: The plasticity of the facades; surfaces in white and shades of grey, black window and doorframes, and a number of linear elements in primary colours . In the machine aesthetic tradition, there is little distinction between interior and exterior space. The rectilinear lines and planes flow from outside to inside, with the same colour palette and surfaces. Even the windows are hinged so that they can only open 90 degrees to

4860-448: The postures of the figures are unnatural, it is convincing and forms a harmonious whole. Every artist manipulates reality to produce an aesthetically and artistically pleasing harmony. The most realistic painters, such as Johannes Vermeer or Rembrandt van Rijn , use all kinds of artistic means to achieve the greatest possible degree of harmony. The artists of De Stijl called these 'visual means' " beeldend " ( plastic ). However,

4941-499: The primary means of representation and, like Van Doesburg, sees a strong similarity with modern painting in that respect. According to Oud, the secondary visual means, decoration, do not contribute to a harmonious architecture. Moreover, he is of the opinion that material must be used in a pure manner (reinforced concrete as reinforced concrete, brick as brick, wood as wood) and that the architect should not be guilty of seeking effect. Restrictions were also imposed in architecture, so that

SECTION 60

#1732772663366

5022-645: The principles of art schools like the Bauhaus; it was a collective project, a joint enterprise. In music , De Stijl was an influence only on the work of composer Jakob van Domselaer , a close friend of Mondrian. Between 1913 and 1916, he composed his Proeven van Stijlkunst ("Experiments in Artistic Style"), inspired mainly by Mondrian's paintings. This minimalistic —and, at the time, revolutionary—music defined "horizontal" and "vertical" musical elements and aimed at balancing those two principles. Van Domselaer

5103-403: The reader's attention to a particular word. Van Doesburg also published so-called Letter-sound-images under the pseudonym I.K. Bonset ; poems that consist only of letters . The De Stijl artists also strove for a balanced portrayal of proportion in music. Just as these were determined in painting by size, color and non-color, neo-plastic music is determined by size, tone and non-tone. Mondrian

5184-424: The relationship of shapes, and the development of shapes over time. After this he made films that consisted of moving compositions with squares and rectangles, which were in line with the principles of neoplasticism. In 1923, Van Doesburg wrote that film should not be seen as a two-dimensional art form, but has its own visual means: light, movement and space. According to Van Doesburg, poetry , just like painting,

5265-464: The same but in a different way. The painter: through colour ratio. The sculptor: by volume ratio. The architect: by ratio of enclosed spaces. The furniture designer: through unenclosed (= open) space relationships. The artists of De Stijl strove for more and better cooperation between the arts without each art form losing its independence. The reason for this was what they saw as the architect's role being too great. The greatest results were expected from

5346-500: The sculptor is concerned with 'volume ratio'. He applied a similar principle to architecture, concluding that the sculptor is concerned with 'volume ratio' and the architect with 'ratio of enclosed spaces'. In his 1925 book " Grundbegriffe der neuen gestaltenden Kunst ", Van Doesburg distinguished two elements for sculpture: a positive element (volume) and a negative element (void). Architecture, unlike painting, has less 'burden' of meaning. Architectural beauty, according to Van Doesburg,

5427-553: The sliding wall. When entirely partitioned in, the living level comprises three bedrooms, bathroom and living room. In-between this and the open state is a wide variety of possible permutations, each providing its own spatial experience. The facades are a collage of planes and lines whose components are purposely detached from, and seem to glide past, one another. This enabled the provision of several balconies . Like Rietveld's Red and Blue Chair , each component has its own form, position and colour . Colours were chosen as to strengthen

5508-451: The spiritual in art] published in 1911. Mondrian remained interested in theosophy until his death. Van Doesburg distanced himself from theosophy around 1920 and focused on quasi-scientific theories such as the fourth dimension and what he called 'mechanical aesthetics' (design by mechanical means). However, he continued to use the term 'spiritual' in his articles. Although Van Doesburg was influenced by Theosophy , his writings were more in

5589-686: The style he had initiated around 1917. Van der Leck, on the other hand, went back to figurative compositions after his departure from the group. The De Stijl influence on architecture remained considerable long after its inception; Mies van der Rohe was among the most important proponents of its ideas. Between 1923 and 1924, Rietveld designed the Rietveld Schröder House, the only building to have been created completely according to De Stijl principles. Examples of Stijl-influenced works by J.J.P. Oud can be found in Rotterdam ( Café De Unie  [ nl ] ) and Hook of Holland . Other examples include

5670-407: The term nieuwe beelding is translated as neue Gestaltung , which is close in its complexity of meanings to the Dutch. In French, it was rendered as néo-plasticisme , later translated literally into English as Neo-Plasticism , which is virtually meaningless. This has been further confounded by the editors of the collected English edition of Mondrian's writings, who adopted the absurd term "

5751-555: The term spatio-temporal, one says nothing more than that an object form changes spatially during a certain period of time as a result of the action of some universal force ". Neoplasticism assumes that when the painter tries to shape reality (or truth), he never does this from what he sees (object, matter, the physical), but from what originates within himself (subject, idea, the spiritual), or as Georges Vantongerloo puts it: "' La grande vérité, ou la vérité absolu, se rend visible à notre esprit par l'invisible " [ The highest truth, or

5832-442: The time formed an important source of inspiration for their theories, and their ideas about architecture were heavily influenced by Hendrik Petrus Berlage and Frank Lloyd Wright . The name Nieuwe Beelding was a term first coined in 1917 by Mondrian, who wrote a series of twelve articles called De Nieuwe Beelding in de schilderkunst ("Neo-Plasticism in Painting") that were published in the journal De Stijl . In 1920 he published

5913-408: The wall, preserving strict design standards about intersecting planes, and further blurring the delineation of inside and out. The architect was trying to avoid an appearance of a monolithic mass . Initially, Rietveld wanted to construct the house out of concrete. It turned out that it would be too expensive to do that on such a small building. The foundations and the balconies were the only parts of

5994-406: Was achieved with a system of sliding and revolving panels. Mrs Schröder used these panels to open up the space of the second floor to allow more of an open area for her and her 3 children, leaving the option of closing or separating the rooms when desired. A sliding wall between the living area and the son's room blocks a cupboard as well as a light switch. Therefore, a circular opening was made within

6075-416: Was also 'visual'. According to him, poetry is not only about the meaning of the word, but also about the sound. Just as in painting, Van Doesburg strove for a poetry that was not narrative. The New Visual poet used the word directly, without associations with the world around us. This resulted in a series of sound poem and typographical poems . Through typography he created sonority and rhythm, which draws

6156-421: Was composed of separate elements from Wölfflins Kunstgeschichtliche Grundbegriffe from 1915. In his lecture Klassiek-Barok-Modern [Classical-Baroque-Modern] (1918), Van Doesburg elaborated on Wölfflin's concept of the contrast between the classical and the baroque , using Hegel's idea of thesis , antithesis and synthesis , where the classical is the thesis, baroque is the antithesis, and modern

6237-401: Was consistently implemented, art would cease to exist. The composer Jacob van Domselaer wrote: "Later there will be no need for art; then all images, all sounds will be superfluous!". Theo van Doesburg saw neoplasticism as a total vision, which he summarized in an article in De Stijl entitled " Tot een Nieuwe Wereldbeelding " [The new worldview]: Neoplasticism would not only change

6318-420: Was limited to the primary colours, red , yellow , and blue , and the three primary values, black , white , and grey . The works avoided symmetry and attained aesthetic balance by the use of opposition. This element of the movement embodies the second meaning of stijl : 'a post, jamb or support'; this is best exemplified by the construction of crossing joints, most commonly seen in carpentry . In many of

6399-445: Was necessary for each art form to establish its own 'visual means'. Only then was the independence of each art form guaranteed. In 1920 he arrived at the following definition: The painter, the architect, the sculptor and the furniture maker each realize that they have only one essential visual value: harmony through proportion. And everyone expresses this one essential and universal value of visual art with his or her art medium. One and

6480-444: Was of the opinion that music, like painting, should be purified of natural influences by, among other things, tightening the rhythm. The non-tone replaces the old rest, but to be 'visual' it must consist of sound; Mondrian suggests using noise for this. Just as in painting, tone and non-tone follow each other directly. This creates a 'flat, pure, sharply defined' music. The supporters of the new visual art thought that if neoplasticism

6561-595: Was relatively unknown in his lifetime, and did not play a significant role within De Stijl. From the flurry of new art movements that followed the Impressionist revolutionary new perception of painting, Cubism arose in the early 20th century as an important and influential new direction. In the Netherlands , too, there was interest in this "new art". However, because the Netherlands remained neutral in World War ;I , Dutch artists were not able to leave

#365634