All you need to know about The Style (De Stijl)


The Style
(De Stijl)
An abstraction movement that spanned from 1917 up to the late 1930's as a reaction to the over decoration and complicated structure resembled by the Art Deco movement, but allowing hints of inspired works from Dada, Suprematism and shape treatment from the Cubist's movement De Stijl was there to revamp and get back to the basics of art and breaking it down to its simplest and fundamental forms.(designhistory.com)

A Dutch based movement led by artists by the name of 

Theo Van Doesburg
Piet Mondrian
Gerrit Reitveld

This collaboration of writers, architects, painters and art critics aimed to deconstruct art and represent it with the most basic principles and values that were harmony and order.( designhistory.com) reports.

Piet Mondrian, Composition A (1920), source:cloudfront.net



Like many movements that came before "The Style" it published its own public declaration that was written by Van Doesburg as a contemporary art journal, this gave the de stijl artists an outlet to reveal their beliefs, and show this new simplistic art movement to
the world. 

With its simple philosophy of using squares, and rectangles it saw the purest representation of geometric shapes adding with the addition of these blocks with primary colours as its colour pallette. 

Primary colours, source: colourtherapyhealing.com



All in an attempt to simplify or make order of an already crumbling world that brought chaos and imbalance at that time, Working with simplicity as well as grids and order helped artists cope with the ever-changing atmosphere of the world that had seen destruction made with the start of World War 1. 

The colours represented simplicity and did not have any other tints, hues besides the philosophy of using only:Red, Blue,Yellow as the (Main colours) and Black, Grey and white as (Non colours). De Stijlist's also showed work that had to adhere this code that you see as the guidelines to any De Stijl which were:

The process of:
Elimination 
( taking out clutter, showing it in the simplest way possible )
The process of 
Reduction 
( using only the subscribed elements, colours) 

The process of 
Simplification
( less is more, more is less principle )

The process of 
Dynamic Assymetrical Balance 
( using, planes, grids, horizontal, and vertical lines)

Gerrit Reitveld, Reitfveld chair, 1918, source:
http://kunstgerritrietveld.weebly.com/
Art Analysis Old Versus New
(De Stijl Furniture design)

Hutch, Gerrit Reitveld, 1919, sourceweebly.com

Old



In this Architectural De Stijl piece made by Gerrit Reitveld in 1919 titled "Hutch" we see just how visually applealing and immensely beautiful De Stijl Architect was. 

Gerrit uses the fundamental building blocks of what made this movement stand out, simply using the the underrated and uniteresting squares, rectangles. It stands out as well as communicate the fundamental principles using 

Geometric shapes, grids, elimination, reduction as well as assymtrical balance. Its simplicity also shows its complexity. 

Why It Works: the design seems flawless and almost futuristic using one colour which is the natural colour of wood. This brings out the naturalistic and gives you a feeling of calmness when you view it from all angles. The viewer can appreciate simplicity as well as the bounds of ultimate creativity, time, effort and execution in this piece.

Top, bottom, sideways, horizontally, vertically making it a true representation of the beauty of "The Style"

Cafe Aubert, France, source:wordpress.com

New

This building follows the characteristics of De Stijl using the same basic shapes as well as primary colours accompanied with the non colours.

Its striking appeal shows just how much horizontal and vertical grids can achieve a striking and timeless balance of art, beauty and design. the colour choice of using white as a base and adding hints of the primay colours seem on the ceiling and the furniture with accents of black makes the design seamless and gorgeous.

Why it works: Using simplicity as its base it achieves harmony and is a well balanced and harmonious design that shows the push of creativity and freedom


References


Primary colours image
http://www.colourtherapyhealing.com/sites/default/files/colourimgs/primary-colours-subtractive.gif

Gerrit Reitveld chair
http://kunstgerritrietveld.weebly.com/kijkwijzer.html

Gerrit Reitveld "Hutch"
http://kunstgerritrietveld.weebly.com/kijkwijzer.html

De Stijl Definition
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-de-stijl.htm

De Stijl Founders and characterstics
http://www.designishistory.com/1920/de-stijl/

Piet Mondrian Composition A
https://dnq5fc8vfw3ev.cloudfront.net/thumbnail/208000/208760/small_aspect/Mondrian/Composition-A.jpg?ts=1459229076

Cafe Aubert France
https://designergirlee.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/cafe-aubette-showing-decorative-art.jpg



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