D E S T I J L
BY JESSAMI VAN DER MERWE- RXX4FT1Y7
B l o g I n t e n t i o n
This blog is created for the purpose of curating a virtual collection of historical artifacts being compared to contemporary examples. Each blog will be representative of a specific Art Movement with the influence and characteristics of that movement being analyzed. This forms part of my ACVL100 (Visual Literacy) Assignment 3 for first year Graphic Design at Pearson Institute of Higher Education.
Background
De Stijl was founded in the Netherlands in 1917 by Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg, both Dutch artists in their own right (Wolfe, 2020). The movement originally came about in a publication format; a magazine known as "Style" or "De Stijl" in Dutch (Wolfe, 2020). The magazine advocated revolutionary ideas surrounding the approach for design, paintings and architecture being created with absolute form reduction and simplicity; eventually influencing the De Stijl movement. The movement came about in response to the first World War and acted as a resolve to reform a horror-stricken post-war society (Watson-Smyth, 2013) . Art was seen as societal reform as its embrace for abstraction and simplicity was a contrast to the chaos of war. (Tabone, 2016).
Characteristics
The De Stijl movement is a reaction towards the Art Nouveau and Baroque movements which embraced the principles of excessive adornment and decoration within the designs; De Stijl aimed to bring back simplicity and order (Tabone, 2016). This was achieved by using a grid method where the layout consisted of vertical and horizontal lines that could either intersect each other or remain estranged from one another, use of geometric shapes such as rectangles, squares and triangles were also a prominent feature (Contemporist Icon, 2012). These abstract compositions created positive and negative space within design work, architecture, furniture and paintings.
Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld 1917
In 1917; Dutch furniture designer and architect, Gerrit Rietveld, created the Red-Blue Chair. The original chair was made of beech-wood and maintained a simplistic design in order to be supportable to mass-production (Watson-Smyth, 2013). Only when Rietveld joined the De Stijl movement, did he paint the chair with the vibrant blue, red and yellow colours seen in the image above. Black was added to most of the chairs frame-work in order to make the primary colours more distinctive. The chair abides to the De Stijl rule of pure abstraction and reduction in overall form so that the design revolved around only the functionality of the product (Wolf, 2011). This chair, like all works within the De Stijl movement, avoided use of organic shapes and stuck to making use of vertical and horizontal lines; this emphasizes the notion of man-made quality prevailing over natural form. The chair appears to adhere to a grid-like layout which creates a sense of volumes within the structure and allows the chair to transform the use of space surrounding it (Wolf, 2011). Rietveld created the chair without the use of organic shapes which is usually used to ensure comfort within furniture making. This decision provokes a sense of structural, man-made quality over natural influence.
Charles Chair Composition, De Stijl inspired by Marcel Wanders (2019)
This recent furniture design embraces the fundamental principles known to the De Stijl movement. The most evident influence is that of the overall visual aesthetic; the primary colours are used in the padding covers and are seemingly held together by bold black frames. The structure of this chair is made up of rectangular shapes that fit together like a puzzle, this is a neat and simplified aesthetic. The design follows through with functionalism as the chair is reduced to its simplest form; containing components needed simply for functionality rather than decoration. Like the Red and Blue Chair, the Charles Chair consists of defined rectilinear planes and a simplified assembly. This is intentionally used in order to emphasize the man-made quality of the furniture as opposed to hand-crafted furniture (Wolf, 2011).
R e s o u r c e a n d R e f r e n c e s :
Contemporist Icon. (2012, December 22). Neo-Plasticism & De Stijl. Retrieved from Contemporist Icon: http://www.contemporisticon.com/neo-plasticism-de-stijl/
Tabone, S. (2016, February 3). De Stijl. Retrieved from History of Art: https://sophietabonehistory.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/de-stijl/
Watson-Smyth, K. (2013, October 25). Design classic: the Red-Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld. Financial Times.
Wolf, J. (2011, November 22). De Stijl Movement Overview and Analysis. Retrieved from The Art Story: https://www.theartstory.org/movement/de-stijl/
Wolfe, S. (2020, July 21). Art Movement: De Stijl. Artland. Retrieved from Artland.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charles Chair image:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2F3dsky.org%2F3dmodels%2Fshow%2Fcharles_chair_moooi&psig=AOvVaw0GMQMOAafICGbztnu9z9gu&ust=1597485380854000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCLDSm6y3musCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD
Red and Blue Chair Image:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.backtodesign.eu%2Fshop%2Fmeubelen%2Fgerrit-rietveld%2F&psig=AOvVaw1o7Tt7USm4PHGY5hjKzajS&ust=1597485547753000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKDQgci3musCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAJ
