Thursday, March 28, 2024

neoplasticism: from typeface, to furniture, to architecture, to fine art

van doesburg's

De Stijl, also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands.Proponents of De Stijl advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour. They simplified visual compositions to vertical and horizontal, using only black, white and primary colors. (WP)

typeface:



or, 


piet zwart's

only then you can infer this form:


mondrian's

and this,



rietveld's chair

see that all the objects above belong to the same function. 

1- color scheme (red, black, yellow, blue), 
2- abstract geometric essence (i.e., the parallelogram, preferably the rectangle), 
3- abstraction i.e., the relation between negative, positive,

then this follows,


jacobus oud's cafe de unie, rotterdam, 1925


rietveld's METZ

van doesburg's cinébal, strasbourg 

white stripes album cover

what is unique about neoplasticism? 

1. elegance, 
2. succinctness, 
3. geometric forms that breathe in minimal movement
4. no circle nor curve! 

Pure metaphysics.