De Stijl

The word De Stijl means 'The Style' in Dutch. It was created in the early 1920's by a group of architects and artists. These were also influenced by some ideas of DaDa. The founder and leader of the group was Theo Van Doesburg,

followed by Gerrit Rietveld, Piet Mondrian, Bart Van Der Leck, Georges Vantongerloo and other as participants. De Stijl’s artists and designers wanted to give importance to peace and harmony. This was a reaction to the effect of WW1.

De Stijl was restricted to the use of right angles and straight lines as well as the use of primary colors which creates abstraction and simplicity in the design. 

Piet Mondrian

Theo Van Doesburg

What do all of these works have in common?

Blocks, straight lines, block colors, squares, it seems like it has no effect. Typical characteristics are horizontal and vertical lines, right angles, areas of flat colors, neutral colors. Piet Mondrian called this Neo Classism.

The name De Stijl or ‘The Style’ was also used for the group’s publication. Theo Van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian wrote The Des Stijl manifesto which was published in four languages on the November 1918.  De Stijl was influenced by Cubism (the shapes), Expressionism (color and shapes), Futurism – There are common elements, the Bauhaus, the Constructivists (flat colors, harmony). They wanted to create something that had a practical function behind it.

The famous Red and Blue chair, designed around 1923 by Gerrit Rietveld. 

It has a really simple form, really straight forward, made out of wood (painted wood). It has harmony in form and color. Rietveld joined the group in 1919. The design also influenced Marcel Breuer in the Wassily Chair which shows similarity in the form of flat planes and lines. 

Wassily Chair - Marcel Breuer, 1925-'27

References:

- DangerDom, 2014, Design is History - De Stijl [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.designishistory.com/1920/de-stijl/ [Accessed at 10 January 2014]

- Charlotte Jirousek, 1995, Art, Design and Visual Thinking [ONLINE] Available at: http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/destijl/decstijl.htm [Accessed 10 January 2014]