In week 05 we began to look at the Revolution and the Bauhaus and we started by talking about Destiji (the style) also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden by Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands.

De Stijl artwork stands out through its use of primary colors, horizontal and vertical lines, squares, and rectangles within the genre of modernism.

1. Straight lines: De Stijl art features clean and straight vertical and horizontal lines that intersect to form right angles.
2. Primary colors: De Stijl artists used primary colors—red, yellow, and blue—plus black and white. These colors do not touch or blend, and straight lines typically divide the colors.
3. Thick strokes: The straight lines in De Stijl artworks are typically black lines in thick strokes to accentuate the division between colors and boxes.
4. Geometric forms: Rectangle and square boxes are standard fixtures of the De Stijl movement. Simple geometric forms were motifs in many pieces, which echoes in De Stijl-influenced architecture. Buildings resembling boxes with various compartments exemplify this art movement.

Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red **exemplifies the movement’s primary colors and geometric shapes. The seminal piece is part of the Tate Modern’s collection in London.

Display Caption in The Tate:

Mondrian’s interest lay in the abstract quality of line but by 1914 he had all but eliminated the curved line from his work. By 1916 he had suppressed any sense of a subject. Still later he developed a new form of rigorous abstraction called Neo-Plasticism in which he limited himself to straight, horizontal and vertical lines and basic primary colours. Typically his compositions were not symmetrical but could scarcely be purer in their elements. He felt this art reflected a greater, universal truth beyond everyday appearance.

Gerrit Rietveld’s Red and Blue Chair **features a square seat and rectangular back, legs, and handles that reflect the geometric forms of De Stijl. Red and Blue Chair **is permanently housed at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York and is one of the art movement’s first three-dimensional pieces.