ART-PRESENTATION: Van Abbe & De Stijl
Like other Avant-Garde Movements of the time, De Stijl, emerged largely in response to the horrors of World War I and the wish to remake society in its aftermath. Viewing art as a means of social and spiritual redemption, the members of De Stijl embraced a utopian vision of art and its transformative potential. Originally a publication, De Stijl was founded in 1917 by two pioneers of Abstract Art, Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Van AbbeMuseum Archive
The exhibition “Van Abbe and De Stijl” is part of the celebrations for the 100 years of the foundation of De Stijl in Holland. De Stijl artists and designers embraced an abstract, pared-down aesthetic centered in basic visual elements such as geometric forms and primary colors, whose impact is felt even today. As a movement, De Stijl influenced painting, decorative arts (including furniture design), typography, and architecture, but it was principally architecture that realized both De Stijl’s stylistic aims and its goal of close collaboration among the arts. The exhibition starts with a major work of De Stijl, looking back at an important moment in its history, and finishes with contemporary design objects, which were selected by students from the Master Design Curating & Writing at the Design Academy Eindhoven. The core of the exhibition is a model of the recreation centre L’Aubette in Strasbourg designed by Theo van Doesburg. It symbolises the seamless fusion of painting and architecture. This model takes us back to Theo van Doesburg’s solo exhibition in the Van Abbemuseum in 1968, for which he made several models based on his architectural ideas. The vision of Van Doesburg, and more in general of De Stijl, is reflected in the different artworks and objects which were made after De Stijl period. At the start of the exhibition a reconstruction of a stage design by Piet Mondrian for “L’Éphémère est éternel” by Michel Seuphor (1926, reconstruction 1964) is part of the exhibition. A contemporary design object is added to this: a cupboard by the Dutch furniture maker Pastoe. This cupboard, entitled “Theo”, is based on the work “Compositie XXII” (1920) by Theo van Doesburg which is in the Van Abbemuseum collection. The circumstances in which the works of art or objects were created are also highlighted in the exhibition with the use of sketches, notes, letters and photographs, amongst other things. These help to clarify the ideas and views which are held in a specific period, whether this is the ‘20s, the ‘90s or the present: the individual artwork or object has central place but never stands alone.
Info: Curator: Diana Franssen, Van AbbeMuseum, Bilderdijklaan 10, Eindhoven, Duration: 17/6-31/12/17, Tue-Fri 11:00-17:00, https://vanabbemuseum.nl
