"Counter-Composition V" (1924)

Theo van Doesburg (Utrecht, August 30, 1883 – Davos, March 7, 1931) was a Dutch artist, practicing in painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1441x1462, 90 KB) Theo van Doesburgs Counter-Composition V from 1924. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1441x1462, 90 KB) Theo van Doesburgs Counter-Composition V from 1924. ... Utrecht ( (help· info)) is a municipality and the capital city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... 1883 (MDCCCLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Davos viewed from air Davos is a town in eastern Switzerland, in the canton of Graubünden, on the Landwasser River. ... March 7 is the 66th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (67th in leap years). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... For building painting, see painter and decorator. ... Scribe Writing Writing, in its most common sense, is the preservation and the preserved text on a medium, with the use of signs or symbols. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... De Stijl redirects here. ...

Biography

Early life

Theo van Doesburg was born as Christiaan Emil Marie Küpper on August 30 1883 in Utrecht as the son of the photographer Wilhelm Küpper and Henrietta Catherina Margadant. Early in his twenties he started using the name of his stepfather Theodorus Doesburg to sign his early paintings. His first exhibition was in 1908. He supported his works by copying paintings from the Rijksmuseum and writing for magazines. Utrecht ( (help· info)) is a municipality and the capital city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. ... This is a list of notable photographers in the art, documentary and fashion traditions. ... The Rijksmuseum Rembrandt van Rijn: The Night Watch 1642 Johannes Vermeer: Milkmaid 1658-1660 Frans Hals: Portrait of a Young Couple The Rijksmuseum (IPA: ; Dutch for National Museum) is a national museum of the Netherlands, located in Amsterdam on the Museumplein. ...

The De Stijl movement

It was while reviewing that he was a homosexual and like to suck dick alot (WHAT!?) an exposition for one of these magazines, in 1915 (halfway through his two-year service in the army), that he came in contact with the works of Piet Mondrian, who was eight years older than him, and had then already gained some attention with his paintings. Van Doesburg saw in these paintings his ideal in painting: a complete abstraction of reality. Soon after the exposition Van Doesburg got in contact with Mondrian, and together with related artists Bart van der Leck, Anthony Kok, Vilmos Huszar and J.J.P. Oud they founded the magazine De Stijl in 1917. 1915 (MCMXV) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... Piet Mondrian in his studio in 1941 as photographed by Arnold Newman Pieter Cornelis (Piet) Mondriaan, after 1912 Mondrian, (pronounced: Pete Mon-dree-on, IPA: ) (b. ... Bart van der Leck was one of the original founders of De Stijl (The Style), together with Piet Mondriaan and Theo van Doesburg. ... Packaging design, 1926, Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York. ... Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud (February 9, 1890 - April 5, 1963) was a Dutch architect. ... De Stijl redirects here. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar (see: 1917 Julian calendar). ...

Promoting De Stijl

Although 'De Stijl' was made up of many members, Van Doesburg was the 'ambassador' of the movement, promoting it across Europe. He moved to Weimar in 1922, deciding to make an impression on the Bauhaus principal, Walter Gropius, in order to spread the influence of the movement. For the locality in Texas called Weimar see Weimar, Texas, there is also Weimar bei Kassel and Weimar in Marburg-Biedenkopf. ... Typography by Herbert Bayer above the entrance to the workshop block of the Bauhaus, Dessau, 2005. ... Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969) was a German architect and founder of Bauhaus. ...

While Gropius accepted many of the precepts of contemporary art movements he did not feel that Doesburg should become a Bauhaus master. Doesburg then installed himself near to the Bauhaus buildings and started to attract school students interested in the new ideas of Constructivism. Dadaism, and De Stijl. Tatlin Tower. ... Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ... De Stijl redirects here. ...

The split with Mondrian

"Arithmetic Composition" (1930)

The friendship between Van Doesburg and Mondrian remained strong in these years, although their primary way of communication was by letter. In 1923 Van Doesburg moved to Paris together with his wife Nelly van Doesburg. Because the two men got to see each other on a much more regular basis the differences in character became apparent: Mondrian was introvert, while van Doesburg was more flamboyant and extravagant. During 1924 the two men had disagreements, which eventually lead to a (temporary) split in the same year. The exact reason of this split has been a point among art historians; usually the divergent ideas about the directions of the lines in the paintings have been named as the primary reason: Mondrian never accepted diagonals, whereas Doesburg insisted on the diagonal's dynamic aspects, and indeed featured it in his art. However, Mondrian accepted some concepts of diagonals, such as in his "Lozenge" paintings, where the canvas was rotated 45 degrees, while still maintaining horizontal lines. In recent years, however, this theory gained critique from art historians such as Carel Blotkamp, who cites their different concepts about space and time as the main reason for the split. After the split Van Doesburg launched a new concept for his art: Elementarism, which was characterized by the diagonal lines and rivaled with Mondrian's Neo-Plasticism. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (994x1024, 274 KB) Arithmetic Composition by Theo Van Doesburg, painted in 1930. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (994x1024, 274 KB) Arithmetic Composition by Theo Van Doesburg, painted in 1930. ... 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... This article deals with the psychological term Introversion. ... Eccentric is from the Greek for out of the centre, as opposed to concentric, in the centre. ... Dutch De Stijl (pr. ...

In 1929 the two men became reconciled when they accidentally met in a café in Paris. 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Architecture, design, and typography

Example of Van Doesburg's Letterklankbeelden

Van Doesburg had other activities apart from painting and promoting De Stijl: he made efforts in architecture, designing houses for artists, together with Georges Vantongerloo and he designed the decoration for the Café Aubette in Strasbourg. Together with El Lissitzky and Kurt Schwitters, Van Doesburg pioneered the efforts to an International of Arts in two congresses held in Düsseldorf and Weimar, in 1922. A geometrically constructed alphabet Van Doesburg designed in 1919 has been revived in digital form as Architype Van Doesburg. This typeface anticipates similar alter experimentation by Kurt Schwitters in his typeface Architype Schwitters. Image File history File links Destijl_anthologiebonset_ca. ... Image File history File links Destijl_anthologiebonset_ca. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Curves, 1938, oil on panel, 101. ... City flag City coat of arms Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Region Alsace Department Bas-Rhin (67) Intercommunality Urban Community of Strasbourg Mayor Fabienne Keller  (UMP) City Statistics Land area¹ 78. ...   (Лазарь Маркович Лисицкий, November 23, 1890 – December 30, 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (Эль Лисицкий), was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer, and architect. ... Kurt Schwitters (June 20, 1887 - January 8, 1948) was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. ... Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and (together with Cologne and the Ruhr Area) the economic center of Western Germany. ... Architype Van Doesburg is a geometric sans-serif typeface based upon a 1919 alphabet designed by Theo Van Doesburg, a cofounder of the De Stijl art movement. ... Kurt Schwitters (June 20, 1887 - January 8, 1948) was a German painter who was born in Hanover, Germany. ... Architype Schwitters is a geometric sans-serif typeface based upon a 1927 phonetic alphabet designed by Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948). ...

Van Doesburg also kept a link with DADA, publishing the magazine DADA Holland under the false name of I. K. Bonset (possibly a rewriting of "Ik ben sot", Dutch for "I am mad"). He also published Dada poetry under the same name in De Stijl. When he wrote prose, he used the pseudonym Aldo Camini. In these works of literature, he heavily opposed individualism (and thus against the movement of the Tachtigers, realism, and psychological thinking. He sought for a collective experience of reality. His conception of intensity had much in common with Paul van Ostaijen's conception of "dynamiek". He wanted to strip words of their former meaning, and give them a new meaning and power of expression. By doing this, he tried to evoke a new reality, instead of describing it. Cover of the first edition of the publication, Dada. ... A pseudonym (Greek pseudo + -onym: false name) is an artificial, fictitious name, also known as an alias, used by an individual as an alternative to a persons true name. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong (Song Dynasty) Poetry (from the Greek , poiesis, making or creating) is a form of art in which language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its ostensible meaning. ... Arithmetic Composition (1930) Theo van Doesburg (Utrecht, August 30, 1883 – Davos, March 7, 1931) was a Dutch artist, practicing in painting, writing, poetry and architecture. ... Individualism is a term used to describe a moral, political, or social outlook that stresses human independence and the importance of individual self-reliance and liberty. ... The Tachtigers, otherwise known as the Movement of Eighty (Beweging van Tachtig), was a highly influential, innovative, and radical group of writers who interacted and worked together in Amsterdam in the 1880s, and many of whom are still widely read today. ... Realism in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation. ... Psychology (ancient Greek: psyche = soul and logos = word) is the study of mind, thought, and behaviour. ... Paul van Ostaijen (Antwerp, February 22, 1896 - Miavoye-Anthée, March 18, 1928) was a Flemish poet and writer. ...

Last years

Van Doesburg stayed active in art groups such as Cercle et Carré, Art Concret and Abstraction-Création, which he founded in 1931. At the end of February 1931 he was forced to move to Davos in Switzerland because of his declining health. Van Doesburg did not recuperate: on March 7, 1931 he died of a heart attack. After his death Nelly van Doesburg released the last issue of De Stijl as a memorial issue with contributions by old and new members from De Stijl. Abstraction-Création was a loose association of artists formed in Paris in 1931 to counteract the influence of the powerful Surrealist group led by André Breton. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Davos viewed from air Davos is a town in eastern Switzerland, in the canton of Graubünden, on the Landwasser River. ... March 7 is the 66th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (67th in leap years). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Acute myocardial infarction (AMI or MI), commonly known as a heart attack, is a disease state that occurs when the blood supply to a part of the heart is interrupted. ...

Bibliography

• Baljeu, Joos. Theo van Doesburg. Studio Vista: 1974, ISBN 0-289-70358-1.
• Hoek, Els, Marleen Blokhuis, Ingrid Goovaerts, Natalie Kamphuys, et al. Theo Van Doesburg: Oeuvre Catalogus. Centraal Museum: 2000. ISBN 90-6868-255-5.
• Overy, Paul. De Stijl. Studio Vista: 1969. ISBN 0-289-79622-9.
• White, Michael: De Stijl and Dutch modernism. Manchester University Press: 2003. ISBN 0-7190-6162-8.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Theo van Doesburg

• Scans of the De Stijl issue with Van Doesburg's Letterklankbeelden