Theo Van

Doesburg

de stijl

Piet mo
ndri an

Jibran Saeed Publishing

Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture
Copyright (C) Jibran Saeed
This book is for personal use only and not for sale

Theo Van
Doesburg

Piet mo
ndri an

Acknowedgements
My thanks to all the people who have helped me make this book.
Special thanks to Shahzaib Arif Sheikh and Kashif who helped me
in designing the book and also Ayesha Haroon and not to forget
my parents for acompanying me in all the hard times. And finally
my teacher Shariq Chhapra without him I would not have finished
this book.

contents
De Stijl

Piet Mondrian

Theo Van Doesburg

Composition with Red Black Blue and Yellow

Broadway Boogie Woogie

10

Cover of First De Stijl Magazine

12

Cover of De Stijl Magazine

14

de stijl
The De Stijl, literally translated as the style was an art
movement founded by architect and painter Theo van
Deosburg in 1917 in Leiden. Other founders of the group
included the sculpture Vantongerloo, architect JJP Oud,
designer Rietveld, and the painter Piet Mondrian.
The group was intent on finding a new aesthetic of art and
principles. Mondrian who was also the groups leading
figure, published a manifesto titled Neo-Plasticism in 1920.
The movement spread through town planning, fine arts,
applied arts and philosophy. The De Stijl movement also
published a magazine between 1917 and 1932 and
provided and overview of the movements works and
theories and all other famous figures of the movement
took part in it. In the magazine Mondrian comments that
the pure plastic vision should build a new society,
in the same way that in art it has built a new plasticism.
Artists of the De Stijl movement saw art as a collective
approach, and as a language that went beyond
culture, geography and politics.
Counter Compostion(1924) Theo Van Doesburg

artwork created by the De Stijl movement artists gave off

a depersonalized, anonymous feel. It was felt that the
artists personality should take a back seat in the artwork.
The key to creating art within the movements views was
to follow the theory of scaling down formal components
of art, using only primary colors and black and whites with
straight lines. A painting was created from the features
on the surface and many De Stijl paintings convey
elements of nature, expressed abstractly. Mondrian
followed the principles of new-plasticism whereas
Van Doesburg attempted to broaden the movements
research projects in architecture he wanted to recreate
the entire living space within a home. De Stijl paintings
usually represented parts of larger spaces like interiors
spaces within houses. De Stijl forms were often geometric,
and made up of primary colors. The main views of the
De Stijl movement greatly influenced the Bauhaus
movement in Germany in the 1920s.
Lozenge Composition with Yellow Black Blue Red
and Gray(1925) Pete Mondrian

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)

Piet Mondrian was born at Amersfoort in The Netherlands.

His original name was Peter Cornelis Mondriaan. Mondrian
began his career as a teacher in primary education,
but while teaching he also practiced painting. Most of his
work from this period is naturalistic or impressionistic,
consisting largely of landscapes. These pastoral images
of his native Holland depict windmills, fields, and rivers,
initially in the Dutch Impressionist manner of The Hague
School, and then using a variety of styles and techniques
documenting his search for a personal voice. These
paintings are most definitely representational, and
illustrate the influence that various artistic movements had
on Mondrian, including pointillism and the vivid colors of
fauvism.
In 1912 Mondrian moved to Paris and changed his name
from Mondriaan to Mondrian to empjhasize his departure
from the artistic life of the Netherlands. In paris, his work
immediately got inspired by the cubism of Picasso and
Braque. It could be seen in his study of trees, from that
time they were increasingly dominated by the geometric
shapes and interlocking planes found commonly
in cubism. While Mondrian was looking forward to absorb
cubism in his work, it seemed clear that he saw cubism as
a road leading to an end, rather than an end in itself.

In 1912 he began to merge his work with his theosophical

studies into a theory that signaled his final break from
representational painting. In 1914 the World War began
while he was visiting his home and had to stay there until
the conflict was put to an end. In Netherland he stayed
at Laren artists colony, where he met Bart van der Leck
and Theo van Doesburg, both of them going through their
own journey towards abstraction. Mondrian was greatly
inspired by Van Der Lecks primary colors and this was
the time when he teamed up with Van Doesburg and
other artists started the movement De Stijl in 1917.

In 1919, when the war ended, Mondrian returned to

France and started to make compositions, inspired
by the work Van Doesburg and Van Der Leck. In his
early work in France he made compositions with
thin gray lines. His compostions got matured as time
moved on and the thin gray lines turned into thick
black lines. In 1938, Mondrian left Paris and moved
to London. In 1940 he moved again, this time to New
York where he remained until his death in 1944.
His later work was difficult to categorize in terms of
artistic development because there were few
canvases which he started in Paris or London and
finished it in New York. He started to make more
lines and overlapped them, which was never seen
before in his work. It was surely the busyness of
New York which was now inspiring Mondrian.

theo van Doesburg (1883-1931)

Theo Van Doesburg (1883-1931)

Theo Van Doesburg was born on 30th August 1883 at

Utrecht, as the son of the photographer Wilhelm Kupper.
His original name was Christian Emil Marie Kpper.
He started to learn singing and dancing but very soon
realized his true passion and decided to become
a painter. He always regarded his Step father
Theo Doesburg to be his natural father and adapted his
name. Also he signed his early work as Theo Doesburg
and later on added Van to his name to become Theo
Van Doesburg. He held his first exhibition in 1908 and
started to promote his work by writing for magazines. He
called himself a modern painter but initially his work was
an inspiration of the famous Amsterdam impressionist
Van Gogh. This changed in 1913 when he read Wassily
Kandinskys Ruckblicke and realized that there is a higher
and more spiritual level in painting originates from the
mind rather than from everyday life, and that abstraction
is the only logical outcome of this. This was the twist in
Van Doesburgs life and his work became abstract.
In a journal he quoted Mondrian realizes the importance
of line. The line has almost become a work of art in itself;
one cannot play with it when the representation of objects
perceived was all-important. The white canvas is almost
solemn. Each superfluous line, each wrongly placed line,
any color placed without veneration or care, can spoil
everything that is, the spiritual."

perceived was all-important. The white canvas is almost

solemn. Each superfluous line, each wrongly placed line,
any color placed without veneration or care, can spoil
everything that is, the spiritual."
In 1919 he joined hands with Mondrian and other abstract
artist and began the movement De Stijl. In the same
year he published the first art magazine of the De Stijl
movement. Although Mondrian was the pioneer of the
De Stijl movement, and despite there were other founding
members too of the movement, Van Doesburg became
the ambassador of the movement because of his due
to his to his flamboyant, impulsive personality, he had
many useful connections in the art world. He traveled to
different places across Europe promoting the movement.
In 1922 he travelled to a lecture with Kurt Schwitters and
became involved with Dadaism. At the same time he
worked with the constructivists and the also became
interested in the Bauhaus school which was recently
founded in Germany. His work was well appreciated by
the principal of Bauhaus, Walter Gropius but Gropius still
believed that they have a different perspective of art.
This led to disappointment for Van Doesburg and out of the
jealousy he installed himself near the Bauhaus School to
attract the Bauhaus students to the new ideas of De Stijl.

Till this point the bonding between Mondrian and

Van Doesburg remain strong, although they used
to communicate through letters.
In 1923 Van Doesburg moved to Paris to so he
could see Mondrian more often, but with him
he also brought the ideas of the Bauhaus and
Dadaism which led to conflicts. And in 1924 the
De Stijl group started to fall apart when Mondrian
and Van Doesburg had a major conflict over
the diagonal lines used by Van Doesburg
in a composition which was not acceptable
by Mondrian. In 1929 they met each other
accidentally at caf and reconciled. At this time
Van Doesburg also became part of other art
groups such as Cercle et Carr, Art Concret and
Abstraction-Cration, which he founded in 1931.
In February of 1931 he moved Davos in Switzerland
due to his declining health and on the 7th of the
following month he died of an heart attack.

Composition with red

black blue and yellow (1925)
This is an example of Mondrians work
when he had totally absorbed the
De Stijl movement. Mondrian made this
composition while he was in Paris in 1925.
This is one of many other similar
compositions by Mondrian where he has
kept simplistic approach. But this
composition also has a black blocked
square apart from the black lines,
rather than having only primary colors in
the squares. It is a grid based composition
with thick black lines separating the
negative spaces and the colored shapes.

The palette is obviously of primary colors with black.

It is a very well balanced composition. The shapes
and colors together make a beautiful hierarchy
in the composition. The eye movement can be very
well seen, the eye drops at the big red square, than
it move towards the black square which next leads the
eye to the blue square, and finally to the yellow square.
The negative shapes in between totally balances the
composition and helps the viewer not get disturbed
by the color and have a proper eye movement through
the composition. The small rectangles of red and yellow
at the edges, keeps the viewer within the frame.

It is a very smartly created composition

by Mondrian. The one has mastered in the
De Stijl movement and this is evidence
of line, space and color can create an
amazing art piece. Although he was a fine
artist his paintings of lines and primary
colors gave a feel graphical composition.

Composition with red black blue and yellow (1925)

Broadway
Boogie woogie (1942-43)
Mondrian made this composition in his
last days in 1942-43 in New York. It is also
one of the last work of his collection and
some of the critics regarded it as his
Masterpiece. It is again a grid based
composition as his style of working
actually was. But this time instead of
using black thick lines he has used yellow
colored lines and has separated the
shapes using different primary colors in
the line, at the edges. Unlikely of his
previous work where he focused on large
rectangular planes divided by long
continuous lines, he zooms out this time
and made these rectilinear shapes into
much smaller forms.

Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942-43)

10

The color palette is again without any doubt primary

and no black has been used. The whites can still be
seen working as the negative shapes. There is no focal
point in this composition but still amazingly there is an
eye movement from one color to other. And it so weird
that even though there is no proper hierarchy or focal
point, the eye only rotates within the frame and doesnt
go out of it, maybe because of the small blue and red
squares at borders of the composition.
There is an unexpected feel of rhythm, as if the
composition is to resemble a dancing city. As he made
this composition in New York, many art critics also
believes that it is the roof plan of the Manhattan city,
dancing on his favorite boogie woogie , on which
he also loved to dance.

11

Cover of first
De Stijl Magazine (1917)
Theo Van Doesburg designed this cover for
the first edition of De Stijl Magazine in 1917.
Although Mondrian and Van Doesburg
both were good friends and part of same
of the same movement, Mondrian only
made natural paintings and abstract
compositions. Whereas, Van Doesburg
explored many other fields apart from only
making abstract compositions. This cover
design is an example of it.

12

The composition is of the centralized and symmetrical,

similar to the work of Mondrian, the composition is grid
based, with a wood cut, abstract black rectangles
in the middle, which also works as the focal point of the
design. It also creates an eye movement, the rectangle
eventually leads to the De Styl, it is pointing towards it.
The approach is again simplistic like Mondrian and but
the color used is only black. Its not that Mondrian only
worked with primary colors, all the artists of De Stijl
movement worked in primary colors and sometimes
only black.

Van Doesburg didnt used his own

typography and instead used Vilmos
Huszars typography as he was paying
a tribute to Huszar in the magazine.
The typography used is san serif and
evenly sized, square shapes without any
curves, which was also a rule of the
De Stijl movement. The design of the
typography also compliments the
abstract wood cut design in between.

Cover of First De Stijl Magazine (1917)

13

Cover of the
De Stijl magazine (1921)
Although Van Doesburg went to Bauhaus
school in 1922 but surprisingly this cover
which he made in 1921, still seems to be
inspired from Bauhaus because of the red
and black color palette together with the
negative spacing. Its a type based layout
and Van Doesburg has kept the design to
minimalistic as usual. The NB which stands
Nieuwe Bleeding(New Imaging), written
in bold letters and red color clearly works
as the focal point of the composition.
And again its a centralized and
symmetrical composition.

Cover of De Stijl Magazine (1921)

14

The typography used is sans serif with bold typeface.

And as it was new imaging Van Doesburg focus was,
he moved away from De Stijl rules and didnt used
blocked typography without any curves. He created
a new logo for De Stijl magazine, and used curve
typeface even for word De Stijl.
Color has also been kept minimalistic to red and black,
as their style of working was. And together with the
placement of text, color makes an amazing hierarchy
and creates a proper eye movement from the logo to
subtitle and then towards the other text.

The stylization of the cover is simple yet

it looks amazing due to the negative
spaces, which actually gives space to the
viewer to have a proper eye movement in
the composition. Although the design of
the cover doesnt seems to be of De Stijl
movement, it is a brilliant example of how
beautifully anything can be designed with
simplicity.

15

The De Stijl, literally translated as the style was an

art movement founded by architect and painter
Theo van Deosburg in 1917 in Leiden. Other founders
of the group included the sculpture Vantongerloo,
architect JJP Oud, designer Rietveld, and the painter
Piet Mondrian. The group was intent on finding a new
aesthetic of art and principles. Mondrian who was also
the groups leading figure, published a manifesto titled
Neo-Plasticism in 1920. The movement spread through
town planning, fine arts, applied arts and philosophy.
The De Stijl movement also published a magazine
between 1917 and 1932 and provided and overview
of the movements works and theories and all other
famous figures of the movement took part in it. In the
magazine Mondrian comments that the pure plastic
vision should build a new society, in the same way
that in art it has built a new plasticism. Artists of the
De Stijl movement saw art as a collective.....

Jibran Saeed
Publishing