Doesburg, Theo van

orig. Christian Emil Maries Küpper

born Aug. 30, 1883, Utrecht, Neth.

died March 7, 1931, Davos, Switz.

Dutch painter, decorator, and art theorist.

Originally involved in theatre, in 1900 he began painting under the influence of Post-Impressionism and Fauvism. After meeting the painter Piet Mondrian in 1915, he turned to geometric abstraction. He was instrumental in founding the De Stijl group and the avant-garde periodical De Stijl. His advocacy of the geometric style was well received at the Bauhaus, where he taught briefly and influenced Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. In 1926 Doesburg wrote his manifesto, "De Stijl", and in 1930 he moved to Paris and opened a studio, which became the focus of the movement.

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▪ Dutch artist

pseudonym of  Christian Emil Marie Küpper  

born August 30, 1883, Utrecht, Netherlands

died March 7, 1931, Davos, Switzerland

      Dutch painter, decorator, poet, and art theorist who was a leader of the De Stijl (Stijl, De) movement.

      Originally van Doesburg intended to pursue a career in the theatre, but he turned to painting about 1900. He worked in Post-Impressionist (Post-Impressionism) and Fauvist (Fauvism) styles until 1915, when he discovered Piet Mondrian's work, which convinced van Doesburg to paint geometric abstractions of subjects from nature. His paintings, with their strict use of vertical and horizontal shapes and primary colours, closely resembled Mondrian's until about 1920. In 1917 van Doesburg was instrumental in forming the De Stijl group of artists, and he also founded the avant-garde art review De Stijl (a publication that was continued until 1931). Among the artists involved with De Stijl was the Dutch architect J.J.P. Oud (Oud, Jacobus Johannes Pieter), for whom van Doesburg first designed stained-glass windows in 1916. His collaborations with architects continued throughout his career, as he went on to design more stained glass, as well as floor tiles and overall colour schemes.

      Van Doesburg turned his attention away from painting around 1920, focusing instead on the promotion of De Stijl in Germany and France. He lectured at the Weimar Bauhaus from 1921 to 1923, and his De Stijl theories subsequently influenced the Modernist architects Le Corbusier (Corbusier, Le), Walter Gropius (Gropius, Walter), and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (Mies van der Rohe, Ludwig). While in Germany, van Doesburg developed an interest in Dada art after meeting the artist Kurt Schwitters (Schwitters, Kurt); using the alias I.K. Bonset, van Doesburg exhibited as a Dadaist in Holland in 1923 and published the Dada art review Mechano.

      Van Doesburg returned to painting around 1924, at which time he decided to introduce the diagonal into his compositions to increase their dynamic effect. He named his new approach “elementarism,” and in 1926 he published a manifesto explaining it in De Stijl. Mondrian so disapproved of the concept that he rejected the De Stijl movement. In 1931 van Doesburg was involved in the formation of the Abstraction-Création association, a group of artists who advocated pure abstraction.

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