In 1917 Theo van Doesburg has founded magazine De Stijl in Leiden. Soon the magazine starts to play a key role at home and abroad. Van Doesburg invites like-minded artists abroad to publish in the magazine.
An artists movement develops around magazine De Stijl, consisting of a.o. Piet Mondriaan, Bart van der Leck, Vilmos Huszár and Gerrit Rietveld. This group of painters, architects and designers aims for an autonomous, universal art, intended for a new human being in a new society. The basic principle should no longer be the individual, but the whole of society. A completely new idiom should appeal to all people in an equal way and should lead to a more harmonious world. Their ideas on this matter are published in the magazine.
Leiden and De Stijl
Leiden is the birthplace of De Stijl. It is here where Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) has founded the magazine in 1917, to which the international movement owes its name. Leiden, in those years, was a city that was ablaze with art and science, as well as a place where famous scholars such as Albert Einstein, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and Paul Ehrenfest were working next to artists such as Theo van Doesburg. With his profound dedication to De Stijl, Theo van Doesburg has given revolutionary shape to a new world: that of the modern life in the twentieth century.
Sfeer, around 1916 - Theo van Doesburg
This painting by Van Doesburg is no longer based on a fact from the visual reality. It is directly constructed of abstract shapes, such as crossing circles of parts thereof. Sfeer (Atmosphere) plays a key role within the oeuvre of Theo van Doesburg; it is his first completely abstract painting.
Sfeer
Theo van Doesburg
Dit schilderij van Van Doesburg is niet meer gebaseerd op een gegeven uit de visuele werkelijkheid. Het is direct opgebouwd uit abstracte vormen zoals elkaar kruisende cirkels of delen daarvan. Sfeer is een sleutelstuk binnen het oeuvre van Theo van Doesburg; het is zijn eerste volledig abstracte schilderij. Van Doesburg schilderde het omstreeks 1916. In deze periode ontwikkelde hij een nieuw ruimteconcept, onder meer op basis van de relativiteitstheorie van Einstein. In 1918 ontmoette Van Doesburg de Belgische beeldhouwer Georges Vantongerloo, wiens stelling ‘Volume + Leegte = Ruimte’ aansloot op het intuïtieve ruimteconcept van Van Doesburg. De waardering voor elkaars werk blijkt uit zijn voorstel om ‘Sfeer’ te ruilen voor Constructie in de bol, een klein beeld van Vantongerloo.
Read moreTheo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg is the founder of De Stijl, the world-renowned art movement that has originated in Leiden in 1917. From here, the radically renewing abstract art conquered The Netherlands and then: the world. Read more about Theo van Doesburg
Chaotic Times
An important substantial incentive for the Stijl-artists was to create harmony by balancing contradictions, both in art and in the world. De Stijl has arisen during a chaotic period. Theo van Doesburg was convinced that the –in his eyes- exaggerated individualism formed the main cause for the First World War. Therefore, the aim of De Stijl was to create new universal art that would fit the new time-awareness, in which a well-balanced relationship was sought between ‘the universal and the individual’.
First edition of magazine De Stijl
De Stijl stands at the beginning of an art movement that is visible to this day and still inspires contemporary artists and architects. The first edition of the magazine is published in 1917. A copy of this is part of the Lakenhal Museum’s collection. The last copy was published in 1931.
De Stijl : maandblad voor de moderne beeldende vakken
Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg richtte in 1917 in Leiden het tijdschrift De Stijl op. Rondom dit tijdschrift ontstond de kunstbeweging De Stijl waarvan Mondriaan, Van Doesburg, Rietveld en Huszár belangrijke vertegenwoordigers zijn. Hun ideeën kwamen in het begin redelijk overeen zodat het tijdschrift de eerste jaren als programmatisch strijdorgaan van de Stijlbeweging kan worden gezien.
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Features
Characteristics for De Stijl’s members’ work are geometrical shapes and bright colours. The artists have worked on a much broader scale than just the visual arts. Furniture and utensils were designed as well and even architecture and urban planning were part of De Stijl. Their ideal was to drench daily life in the universal art philosophy this way.
Contra-Composition VII
In March 2017 the De Lakenhal Museum has purchased a rare, abstract painting at an auction in London by Theo van Doesburg. In 1924, he painted the Contra-Composition VII in Paris, during the hey-days of De Stijl. Exactly 100 years after Theo van Doesburg has founded the eponymous magazine De Stijl in Leiden in 1917, Museum De Lakenhal is able to add this masterpiece of international importance to its collection for eternity. Contra-Composition VII was purchased thanks to the generous support of the Vereniging Rembrandt– partly thanks to her Nationaal Fonds Kunstbezit, the Mondriaan Fonds, the VSBfonds, the Vereniging van Belangstellenden in Museum De Lakenhal, the Lucas van Leyden Mecenaat, the gemeente Leiden, the Banderfonds and a variety of anonymous, private donors.
Tegelvloer
Theo van Doesburg – Tile floor design for entrance and hall of holiday home De Vonk in Noordwijkerhout, ca. 1918.
Ontwerp tegelvloer voor entree en hal van Vakantiehuis De Vonk in Noordwijkerhout
Theo van Doesburg
Continuous Imaging
In Leiden Theo van Doesburg has created his first abstract work. He did so by using the so-called ‘continuous imaging’. The development from figurative to abstract work can be seen very clearly in the work as shown to the right. The top image shows a rather lifelike display of reality, yet the lower one shows not a single link to reality at all. Eventually, this way of abstracting has led to the radical imaging principle that all members of De Stijl share: the ban of any reference to phenomena of the visual reality. Art works should no longer evoke any direct associations with recognizable things.
De Blauwpoortsbrug met paard en wagen
Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg woonde in de buurt van Museum De Lakenhal aan het Kort Galgewater nummer 3. Vanuit het raam van zijn atelier keek hij uit op de Blauwpoortsbrug. Deze gouache is een vrij natuurgetrouwe weergave van de situatie ter plekke.
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De Blauwpoortsbrug met paard en wagen
Theo van Doesburg
In een later stadium maakte Theo van Doesburg van de vrij natuurgetrouwe weergave van de Blauwpoortsbrug deze doorbeelding. Alleen de lijnen die hij belangrijk vond accentueerde hij, waardoor de voorstelling nog meer wordt geabstraheerd.
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