De Stijl With Examples From the Original Movement Essay

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World War One and World War Two, artists pondered their role in the world. "Largely in response to the horrors of World War I and the wish to remake society in its aftermath," artists, architects, and designers began to view art "as a means of social and spiritual redemption," ("De Stijl," n.d.). The result was a utopian and yet ironically pragmatic and functionalistic movement known by its Dutch name De Stijl, or The Style. De Stijl was also the name of the printed journal chronicling the ideas and aesthetics of the movement. Architect Theo van Doesburg is credited with founding De Stijl, but Gerrit Rietveld and Piet Mondrian were also key figures in the movement.

De Stijl is characterized by the "machine aesthetics of the new industrial age," abstraction, simplicity, and the absence of surface decorations ("Art, Design, and Visual Thinking: De Stijl," n.d.). Taking its cue from cubism and abstract visual arts, De Stijl artists and designers sought to reduce recognizable forms to create a sort of "universal language" of art and design ("De Stijl," n.d.). Art and design were practically fused in De Stijl, which is why architecture and furniture as well as painting and sculpture, and even literature and music, were all extensions of the central notion of utopic communication via visual forms.

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In De Stijl work, the only colors used are black, white, and the primary colors. "The initial source of their ideas came from DaDa notions about dispensing with the pretentious elitist design aesthetics of the pre-war era," ("Art, Design, and Visual Thinking: De Stijl," n.d.). The philosophy of De Stijl is not only utopian but also universalist, as De Stijl was in part a reaction against the perceived excesses of contemporary movements like Art Deco.

Elements of De Stijl are still evident in architecture and design around the world. The most notable examples of the original De Stijl movement include the works of Piet Mondrian, whose dramatic linear compositions exemplified the core aesthetic ideals of De Stijl: only primary colors, black and white, simple forms and lines, and an industrial, universal feel. Another example of the De Stijl aesthetic from the original movement is the "Red Blue Chair" by Gerrit Rietveld. This chair resembles a Mondrian painting in its linear aspects and its use of color, and as a piece of furniture, blends form and function in modern ways. In contemporary art….....

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