Page 23 - Studio International - March 1968

Ideas and influences of De Stijl
A comprehensive exhibition of work by the De Stijl group is at the
Camden Arts Centre, Arkwright Road, N.W.3, to March 24.
John Milner
The definition provided by both De Stijl
and Constructivism of an all-pervading
space remains with us. Volumes expressing limited form.
space and not mass require motion or
transparency (as in Constructivism) or
rely upon line and plane (as in De Stijl).
Such a concept of space negates the oppo-
sition of an 'inside' and an 'outside' which
G. Rietveld (seated) and
G. A. van der Groenekan can be seen to flow into each other. This
(behind chair) outside is as essential to a 'spheric theme' by Gabo
93 Adriaen van Ostadelaan,
Utrecht, c. 1918 as it is to a piece of furniture by Rietveld.
We can however only be made aware of
general space by the inclusion into it of a
In De Stijl the artist's role was seen as
that of a similar limited form within
society as a whole, producing awareness of
its overall image. To achieve this, 'inside'
and 'outside' must be negated, the artist
in a sense must become empty and relin-
quish his individuality. The importance of
De Stijl today lies largely in this.
`we want to penetrate nature in such a way that the
inner construction of reality is revealed to us.'
These words of Schoenmaeker's, whose ideas were of
central importance for De Stijl generally and for Mon-
drian in particular, give some idea of the impersonal,
almost scientific, approach to life adopted by the members
of De Stijl from its beginnings in 1917. In his introduction
to the first issue of the magazine De Stijl, Van Doesburg
stresses the importance of the artist's sacrifice of his
indviduality :
`As soon as the artists in the various branches of plastic
art will have realized that they must speak a universal
language, they will no longer cling to their individuality
with such anxiety. They will serve a general principle far
beyond the limitations of individuality...'
The breadth of the movement's theoretical bases is indi-
cated by the inclusion of architectural projects into the
first issue. The rectangle was at once seen to be an all-
important element, moving rhythmically through two-
dimensional space in the paintings and closing around the
simple box-like forms of Oud's project for a beach
esplanade. The horizontal and the vertical were integral
to Schoenmaeker's conception of the structure of the
universe and it is through the painters' interpretation of
this conception that Oud is able to strip his projected
building of applied decoration and historicism. It is this
philosophical justification for simplicity and abstraction
which allowed men like Oud and Mondrian to com-
pletely abandon the art of the past:
`Our collective aims were based upon the absolute de-
valuation of traditions we had loved perhaps most of all
and exhausted soonest...' (Van Doesburg)
Gerrit Rietveld joined De Stijl in 1919. The particular