De StijlThe Matching Boys

Typical De Stijl Painting

Original Mondriaan: How much did it go for?

“Original”

Made by us.

Now make your own, be creative.

Is emotion a vital part of the meaning of art?

According to Mondrian no. His mission was to take all emotion out of his art.

Emotion?

Mondrian

Dutch

Early 1940’s

Created art that had no natural shapes or colors. Believed that nature never had no exact straight lines.

Mondrian and other modernists wanted to move painting beyond naturalistic depiction to focus instead on the material properties of paint and its unique ability to express ideas abstractly using formal elements such as line and color.

Early art and inspiration

Mondrian and other modernists wanted to move painting beyond naturalistic depiction to focus instead on the material properties of paint and its unique ability to express ideas abstractly using formal elements such as line and color.

Early Mondrian

Mondrian, Truncated view of the Broekzijdse Molen on the Gein. 1902-1903

Oil on canvas. MOMA, New York.

This early piece is almost impressionist. Mondrian was heavily influenced by Fauvism and Pointillism. His earliest works were only landscapes, mostly depicting windmills or fields from his home land.

Most historians attribute this early influence to his upbringing, which was very traditionally protestant.

Later art and life

Just like another famous artist we have seen Mondrian decided to leave behind his style and create his own

Picasso!

Mondrian decided that normal art isn’t for him, just like Picasso

Characteristics of De Stijl

“De Stijl” translates to “The Style”

Started in the Netherlands in 1917

● Complete abstractism● Reduction of form and color● Geometric shapes ● Straight lines● Typically only black, white, red, yellow, and blue● Also referred to as Neoplasticism

"This new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary, it should find its expression in the

abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour"

-Mondrian

Piece #1

Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow

● 1930● Mondrian composed this painting as a harmony of contrasts that signify

balance and and tension of dynamic forces● Viewed the black lines not as outlines but as planes of pigment in their own

right● Eliminates depth● Blacks and whites are shaded slightly different and seen up close there are

varying textures○ Adds to theme of harmony of contrasts

Piece #2

Composition VII (The Three Graces)

● 1917● Dutch artist Theo Van Doesberg● Three Graces

○ Greek antiquity

● Van Doesburg prized dance as an expressive ideal● Typical de Stijl piece line and color

Three Graces

Raphael

Man with Guitar

Piece #3

● Composition with Yellow, Blue, and Red● 1937-1942● Reduction of elements to base geometric forms and primary colors ● Named a lot of his pieces using the some words to emphasize

emotionlessness of the art○ Also typical tactic used by abstract artists to get their point across and their critique on the

meaning of art

Connections

Ending

De Stijl is essentially reducing line and color into one piece that is simplified in composition and sometimes with the purpose of taking emotion out of an art piece.