De Stijl

The style, or as is famously known by its Dutch reference, “De Stijl” came about as a result of the chaos and destruction that was caused by the first world war. The horror that was seen from the war inspired artists to remake society and De Stijl emerged as a way of portraying art in a manner that spoke of spiritual and social redemption. Artist who took up the De Stijl style used rectangles, straight lines and squares and combined these geometric forms with primary colors to create a visual language through their work. In the quest to find a universal ground initiated by the degradation of the loss of significance for an individual one, De Stijl art was able to reveal to the viewer, the laws that governed the harmony that existed in the world around us (Elena, Natalie & Silka, 2016).

            Be it in architecture or painting, De Stijl art demonstrates both abstraction and simplicity. It incorporates the use of only rectangular forms and vertical and horizontal lines combined with the colors red blue and yellow which are the acknowledged formal vocabulary (Zonag, 2016). Only the three colors are used in De Stijl designs when outlining specific elements while the surfaces are painted in black, grey or white. By use of opposition, the art is able to attain an aesthetic balance while still managing to avoid symmetry in the design. Each element in the art is allowed to exist independently without obstructing or being obstructed by other elements especially because the horizontal and vertical lines and the crossing joints are constructed in a way that their layers do not intersect. This is evident in the Red and Blue Chair and the Rietveld Schroder House which is the only building that can be said to be fully realized in relevance to the De Stijl principles (Elena, Natalie & Silka, 2016).

 

References

Elena M, Natalie P and Silka P, (2016) “De Stijl: The modern plastic art movement” Widewalls

Zonag A, (2016) “De Stijl: Abstraction in architecture” retrieved from, http://www.academia.edu/5187702/De_Stijl_-_Abstraction_in_Architecture