De Stijl

De stijl was founded by The Van Doesburg in 1917 in order to gather fellow artist with the same ideals for harmony and perfection. This style was formed during the First World War which was filled with horror and depression and these De Stijl arstists wished to counteract a response to all of this negativity and chaos. The previous style was Art Deco which involved excessive decorating and design, De stijl went against this and went for simpler forms. Dada Art is what had influenced this style, it was the the first ‘anti-art’ style since its purpose was to reject traditional art. When Dada was introduced in the Netherlands it was focused mainly on Theo Van Doesburg. Van Doesburg had befriended a Dadaist named Kurt Schwitters in which they promoted the Dada Movement. De Stijl’s purpose was to provide citizens with a sense of significance and share with them something neutral, however this message was not delivered.

The characteristics of De Stijl involved:

• Geometric forms

• Primary colours

• Abstract

• No representation

• No emotion