Vantongerloo, Georges

Vantongerloo, Georges (1886–1965). Belgian sculptor, painter, architect, and writer on art, active mainly in France. He was born in Antwerp and studied at the Academy there and at the Brussels Academy. In 1914 he was wounded whilst serving with the Belgian army and from 1914 to 1918 was interned in the Netherlands. There he joined the De Stijl group in 1917 and turned from the conventionally naturalistic style he had previously practised to abstract sculptures in which he applied the principles of Neo-Plasticism to three dimensions (Interrelation of Volumes, Tate Gallery, London, 1919). From 1919 to 1927 he lived in the French Riviera resort of Menton and then for the rest of his life in Paris, where he was a member of Cercle et Carré and in 1931 one of the founders of Abstraction-Création. From 1928 Vantongerloo began to design ambitious (and unrealized) architectural projects, including a ‘Skyscraper City’ (1930), whose cubiform structure resembles that of his sculptures. In the 1940s his sculpture became more varied as he began using wire and perspex, exploring effects of reflection and refraction. His paintings were based on horizontal and vertical lines until 1937, when he introduced rhythmic curving lines. He was a close friend of Max Bill, who organized several exhibitions of his work and became his executor.

Vantongerloo was one of the pioneers of a mathematical approach to abstract art. He rejected his friend Mondrian's idea that only constructions based on the right angle reflect the harmony of the universe, believing that this was only one way among many of achieving formal relations that would embody spiritual values. Some of his ideas on ideas are expressed in his collection of essays L'Art et son avenir, published in 1924. His work is represented in many major collections of modern art.