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8 October 2004. My presentation will begin with a discussion of the origins of non-representational illumagery, with an emphasis on geometricality. de Stilj, Constructivism, Futurism, Suprematism. I'm not particularly straight on all these, so have begun by stealing information off the Internet, beginning with the following about de Stilj.
The name De Stijl, title of a magazine founded in the Netherlands in 1917, is now used to
identify the abstract art and functional architecture of its major contributors: Mondrian,
Van Doesburg, Van der Leck, Oud, Wils and Rietveld. De Stijl achieved international
acclaim by the end of the 1920s and its paintings, buildings and furniture made
fundamental contributions to the modern movement.
It was a Dutch nonfigurative art movement, also called neoplasticism. The leaders of the movement were the artists Theo van Doesburg and
Piet Mondrian. They advocated a purification of art, eliminating subject matter in favor of
vertical and horizontal elements, and the use of primary colors and noncolors. Their
austerity of expression influenced architects, principally J.J.P.Oud and Gerrit Rietveld.
The movement lasted until 1931; in architecture a few de Stijl principles are still applied.
The main artists involved were:
Jean Arp,
Theo van Doesburg,
Cesar Domela,
Cornelis van Eesteren,
Vilmos Huszar,
Bart-van-der Leck,
El Lissitzky,
Piet Mondrian,
J.J.P. Oud,
Gerrit Rietveld,
Sophie Taeuber-Arp,
Georges Vantongerloo,
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart,
Jan Wils and
Piet Zwart.
From my point of view, in their "purification of art, eliminating subject matter in favor of vertical and horizontal elements, and the use of primary colors and noncolors," these artists were unconsciously moving into a second expressive modality, a kind of geometry-based blueprinting, they were taking a fairly significant a step toward pluraesthetic art.
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