De Stijl
Although the De Stijl movement was not the renowned development that cubism or surrealism turned out to be, it nevertheless carried quite an influence into the art world and the design of architectural workings. Despite a fairly fleeting exposure, the De Stijl group could possibly be considered the most important contribution made by the Netherlands towards the development of modern art. The aftermath of the first world war left many counties in a desperate state of repair, however, do to the Netherlands neutral stance during the war they were left fairly undisturbed, physically at least, lending a perfect situation for new ideas to evolve from stirring Dutch minds. Though the movement disseminated throughout Europe and America, the movement was meant to be and almost had to originate form the Netherlands itself. For generations the Netherlands had been built up with industry and mechanical structures. Precision and accuracy were a part of the culture, straight lines and right angles could be seen everywhere. The very nature of Holland's society could not help but fuel the inspiration for the perfection and consistency of the De Stijl movement. The 14 year stint of De Stijl lasted actively from 1917-1931. Originally founde
The De Stijl movement paid great attention to and founded much of their principles behind the notion of style. Theo Van Doesburg states, "The object of nature is man, the object of man is style."# The founders of this movement were also deeply influenced by Dutch theorists H.P. Berlage and shoenmakers. As Berlage wrote, "style equals repose, style is unity in plurality, style is order." With deep influence the De Stijl group sought to take away the depiction of objects and reduce it to their core, leaving only the essence of the form. Their effort was to take an art form away form any spontaneous or detailed form. Outer detail the felt was unnecessary and merely an excuse for lack of inner power. The ultimate goal of the group was "Absolute abstraction - that is to say, complete elimination of the entire sphere of direct observation of nature - and restriction of the means of plastic expression to the straight line and right angle.ie to the horizontal and the vertical; the three primary chromatic colors; and the three primary non-colors."# Piet Mondrian summed up the guidelines in which the De Stijl group followed in his book titled "neoplasticism." This group which originated in the Netherlands pushed for a cure to society through their movement. De Stijl was in their minds a movement towards a utopian state and the loss of individuality for the whole of society. To them the movement was more than just an art form, it was both a political ideal and almost a religion as well. A pristine rendering of their world through lines and bold colored shapes was the goal, "The masters of De Stijl therefore see in the consciousness of their period a tendency towards the collective, towards a depersonalization, but also towards a mathematical exactitude, towards the precision of a formula."# This mathematical precision and cleanliness fit closely with the architectural framework that many including Rietveld were using to design such works as "Schroder House" and "Red/Blue chair." Within De Stijl there were also ties to the long history of Dutch Puritanism. All founders of the movement were raised in what was the background of a Dutch puritan culture. Through its strictness and clear neglect of a superfluous lifestyle the puritan belief held that beauty originates through purity. This would of course make sense with the movement pushing towards simplification of form, " A cleansing of the arts, reducing to the essence of its content. Painting was now an art of pure relationsh
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1676
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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