De Stijl - An Overview
The De Stijl movement was part of an era at the beginning of the 2D Ih century when artists throughout Europe sought to redefine art. They responded to the changes in society and the economy at this time. With the beginning of the machine age and World War I basic human values began to change. This was impetus for artists to find a new, more critical role in society. In particular, they wanted a break with the traditional art and the bequest of the past. Art Nouveau, the first widespread language of design in the 20th century was followed by Art Moderne. Whereas a curvilinear and a rich decorative style was characteristic for Art Nouveau, simple machine based aesthetics with sharp geometrical shapes were typical for Art Moderne.Europe's artists were prepared for even the most radical approaches. Futurism and Constructivism produced many new design ideas. Artists rethought the very nature of design, typography and architecture and found very violent new approaches and techniques. This also was supported by the revolution in Russia and the new communist ideology there. Running parallel to the events in Russia, in Switzerland the Dada emerged as an anti-art in protest of the folly of the war. Cubism made, at that time, a gr
As for observations I am able to make, I agree with the idea of the importance of mathematical concepts in order to achieve beauty. Mathematical structures can be found for instance in musical compositions of great composers like Bach, Obrecht, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Brühns, Hanff, Lübeck and Schütz. I do not know whether the mathematical patterns were used consciously or they just emerged. the fact is that they seem connected with the beauty of their works. Scientific research shows that mathematics is at the very core of nature's processes which would make it according to De Stijl highly universal. Here balanced cycles create beauty unequaled by human creations. That is at least what I feel about it. Alone, nature's complexity makes it hard to recognise any structures at first sight. Mondrian observed an increasingly abstract lifestyle in the early 20th century cultured person and saw therein a turn away from nature. I would rather draw the conclusion of a turn away from the ballast of human produced clutter and ugliness for the following two reasons. 1.) There was a longing in society and especially amongst the artists to break with the bequest of the past and 2.) I can not help but experience nature as beauty most of the time and I find it hard to imagine that a considerably large number of people perceive this differently. I cannot quite grasp the thought that nature cannot be part of an ideal world as according to De Stijl. I can very much identify with the concept of beauty through balance of the elements in a composition. In this respect I value especially the 2D work of De Stijl artists like the paintings and compositions in stained glass. They show the principle of harmonisation, that if something is taken away or added on one side it needs to be balanced by a corresponding alteration on the other side. In layout work I do, I have paid attention to this rather unconsciously as for me beauty and harmony is desirable. Often it takes quite a bit of time of trying out different arrangements before a satisfactory result is ac
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Blue Yellow,
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Futurism Constructivism,
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beauty balance elements,
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Approximate Word count = 1394
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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