Doesburg, Theo van (1883–1931). Dutch painter, designer, writer, and propagandist, born in Utrecht. His original name was Christiaan Kuppers, after his biological father, a German photographer, but he called himself after his Dutch stepfather. Initially he planned to have a career in the theatre, but he had begun painting by 1899 and he had his first exhibition in The Hague in 1908. He had no formal artistic training. In 1913 he published a collection of his poems, and he was also writing art criticism at this time. His early paintings were influenced variously by Impressionism, Fauvism, and Expressionism, but in 1915 he met Mondrian and rapidly underwent a conversion to complete abstraction. In 1917 he founded De Stijl and he devoted the rest of his life to propagating the association's ideas and the austerely geometrical style it stood for. He saw himself as a crusader fighting to cleanse the world of cultural impurities, and George Heard Hamilton writes that ‘His tireless energy, inexhaustible intellectual curiosity, and powers of persuasion made him an irresistible proselytizer. It was he who first had the vision of an inclusive modern style, one which would embrace all the arts and all the productions whereby the man-made environment is created as specifically human.’

Up to about 1920 van Doesburg's paintings were very close in style to those of Mondrian, both of them predominantly using small, irregularly disposed rectangles of primary colour on a light background, but thereafter their paths diverged. Mondrian had returned to Paris in 1919 and van Doesburg spent much of the 1920s travelling to promote De Stijl ideas, particularly in Germany. From 1922 to 1924 he taught intermittently at the Bauhaus, which in 1925 published a German translation—Grundbegriffe der neuen gestaltenden Kunst—of his most important book, Gronndbegrippen der nieuwe beeldende Kunst (1919). (An English translation, Principles of Neo-Plastic Art, appeared in 1968). While he was in Germany van Doesburg became friendly with Schwitters and briefly practised Dada (this marked a great departure from his normal work, but he was always interested in radical new ideas). By the mid1920s he had abandoned the rigid horizontal-vertical axes insisted upon by Mondrian and introduced diagonals into his paintings in a series of works entitled Counter-compositions (Counter-composition in Dissonance XVI, Gemeen-temuseum, The Hague, 1925). He called this new departure Elementarism, publishing a manifesto describing it in De Stijl in 1926; Mondrian dissociated himself from De Stijl because of this heresy.

In addition to painting, writing, and lecturing, van Doesburg collaborated on several architectural projects, the most important of which was the remodelling of the Café d'Aubette in Strasbourg (1926–8), in which he worked with Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. Contrary to what the name might suggest, the Café is a large building, part of a prominent architectural complex (in the city's main square) that dates in part back to the 13th century and has served a variety of uses. Van Doesburg was in overall charge of the project and ‘also designed virtually every piece of equipment, from the electrical fuse-boards to the ash-trays and crockery’ ( Paul Overy, De Stijl, 1991). The principal room he worked on was the Cinema Dance Hall, which featured a series of very bold diagonal elements that obscured the definition of wall and ceiling. With its bright colours, it was like a huge walk-in version of one of his paintings. When the Café reopened the public hated the decoration so much that the management had it altered or covered (it was restored in the 1990s), but it anticipated the kind of ‘total design’ seen in major corporate buildings after the Second World War. In 1929 van Doesburg moved to Paris and designed a house and studio for himself at Meudon in a stark and stripped style (1929–31); he thought that an artist's studio should resemble a medical laboratory. In 1930 he published a manifesto of Concrete art and in February 1931 a meeting of artists in his new studio led to the formation of the Abstraction-Création association. The following month he died of a heart attack in Switzerland, where he had gone for treatment for his chronic asthma.

He died a disappointed man because of the fate of his Café Aubette designs and a general sense of rejection of his ideas, but only five years later Alfred H. Barr gave De Stijl a central place in his Cubism and Abstract Art (originally published to accompany an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York) and described van Doesburg as ‘painter, sculptor, architect, typographer, poet, novelist, critic, lecturer and theorist—a man as versatile as any figure of the Renaissance'. Although he has a secure place in the history of modern art, he has provoked conflicting opinions: ‘Some historians and critics have visualized and described van Doesburg as a scorned prophet, shouting the truth in a wilderness of conventional deceit, while others now view him as just one of the many self-proclaimed messiahs who shouted their way through the 1920s’ ( Theodore M. Brown in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982).

Theo van Doesburg

The Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) was one of the founders of the modern art movement called de Stijl and the chief promoter of its ideas.

Theo van Doesburg whose real name was C. E. M. Kupper, was born on Aug. 30, 1883, in Utrecht. He was involved in painting and interior decorating and writing on art, but it was only in 1917 after he had met the painter Piet Mondrian that Van Doesburg formulated his ideas clearly. The two painters founded the group de Stijl (the Style) and the avant-garde review of the same name when they and several other artists established a number of common aspirations which formed the basis of the movement.

Van Doesburg's temperament made him the public leader of the group. He was an impulsive and vigorous man, with strong likes and dislikes, in contrast to the far more reticent and cautious Mondrian. De Stijl esthetic was based on geometric abstractions and applied not only to painting but to other arts, especially architecture. Unlike many art movements in the 20th century, de Stijl aimed at social and spiritual reforms rather than purely artistic concerns. The leaders believed that a purified geometric esthetic would exert a strong and calming influence on those who saw a de Stijl painting or lived in a de Stijl house.

Van Doesburg traveled extensively from 1919 on, visiting the active centers of progressive art in Germany and France. He gave lectures, wrote numerous articles, and made many personal contacts with the avant-garde leaders in those countries. His contacts and interests were wider than those of Mondrian, who left de Stijl in 1925 because he disagreed with Van Doesburg on esthetic grounds.

In 1922 Van Doesburg became briefly involved with Dadaism and traveled on a wild lecture tour with the German Dadaist Kurt Schwitters. Van Doesburg worked at the same time with the constructivists and became interested in the Bauhaus, which had recently been founded in Germany. In the 1920s his interests progressively widened, and he wrote about these new interests in his articles for the De Stijl review; these articles helped to change the direction of the movement. Finally, he formulated a more dynamic version of de Stijl and published this as a manifesto of what he called elementarism. He continued to experiment with novel ideas, both in writing and painting, and collaborated with the painter Jean Arp. Just before his death on March 7, 1931, in Davos, Switzerland, Van Doesburg helped found the Abstraction-Création group in Paris.

Further Reading

Most of the writing on Van Doesburg is in Dutch. Two useful discussions of de Stijl and Van Doesburg's role in the movement are in Reyner Banham, Theory and Design in the First Machine Age (1960; 2d ed. 1967), and H. L. C. Jaffé, De Stijl (1964). □

Doesburg, Theo van (b Utrecht, 30 Aug. 1883; d Davos, Switzerland, 7 Mar. 1931). Dutch painter, designer, architect, and writer on art. His early work was influenced variously by Impressionism, Fauvism, and Expressionism, but in 1915 he met Mondrian and rapidly underwent a transition to complete abstraction. In 1917 he was one of the founders of De Stijl and he devoted the rest of his life to propagating the association's ideas and the austerely geometrical style it stood for, seeing himself as a crusader fighting to cleanse the world of cultural impurities. He spent much of the 1920s travelling to promote his beliefs, particularly in Germany, and from 1922 to 1924 he taught intermittently at the Bauhaus. By the mid-1920s he had abandoned the rigid horizontal-vertical axes insisted upon by Mondrian and introduced diagonals into his paintings in a series of works entitled Counter-compositions; he called this new departure Elementarism. In 1929 he moved to Paris and designed a house and studio for himself in the suburb of Meudon in a stark and stripped style (1929–31); he thought that an artist's studio should resemble a medical laboratory. In 1930 he published a manifesto of Concrete art and in 1931, shortly before his death from a heart attack, a meeting of artists in his new studio led to the formation of the Abstraction-Création association.

Van Doesburg died a disappointed man, feeling that his ideas had been rejected, but only five years later Alfred H. Barr gave De Stijl a central place in his book Cubism and Abstract Art (originally published to accompany an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York) and described van Doesburg as ‘painter, sculptor, architect, typographer, poet, novelist, critic, lecturer and theorist—a man as versatile as any figure of the Renaissance’. Although he has a secure place in history, he has provoked conflicting opinions: ‘Some historians and critics have visualized and described van Doesburg as a scorned prophet, shouting the truth in a wilderness of conventional deceit, while others now view him as just one of the many self-proclaimed messiahs who shouted their way through the 1920s’ ( Theodore M. Brown in Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects, 1982).

Doesburg, Theo van (1883–1931). Dutch painter, designer, architect, and writer on art. His early work was influenced variously by Impressionism, Fauvism, and Expressionism, but in 1915 he met Mondrian and rapidly underwent a transition to complete abstraction. In 1917 he was one of the founders of De Stijl and he devoted the rest of his life to propagating the association's ideas and the austerely geometrical style it stood for, seeing himself as a crusader fighting to cleanse the world of cultural impurities. He spent much of the 1920s travelling to promote his beliefs, particularly in Germany, and from 1922 to 1924 he taught intermittently at the Bauhaus. By the mid-1920s he had abandoned the rigid horizontal–vertical axes insisted upon by Mondrian and introduced diagonals into his paintings in a series of works entitled Counter-Compositions; he called this new departure Elementarism. In 1929 he moved to Paris and designed a house and studio for himself in the suburb of Meudon in a stark and stripped style (1929–31); he thought that an artist's studio should resemble a medical laboratory. In 1930 he published a manifesto of Concrete art and in 1931, shortly before his death from a heart attack, a meeting of artists in his new studio led to the formation of the Abstraction-Création association.

Doesburg, Theo van (1883–1931). Born Christian Emil Maries Küpper in Utrecht, Netherlands. Though not an architect, he had considerable influence on modern architecture. With Oud and others he established the periodical De Stijl (see stijl, de), taught at the Bauhaus in Weimar (1921–4), and, with van Eesteren, designed houses for a De Stijl exhibition in Paris (1923). With the painter Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (1886–1966) and Arp's wife, Sophie Taeuber-Arp (1889–1943), he designed and decorated the interior of the Café de l'Aubette, Strasbourg (1926–8—destroyed). He also designed a studio and house at Meudon-Val-Fleury, France (1929–31—incom-plete), based on Le Corbusier's Citrohan houses of the early 1920s. He influenced Rietveld's Elementarist designs for the Schroeder House, Utrecht.

Bibliography

Chilvers, Osborne, & Farr (eds.) (1988);
Danzker et al. (eds.) (2000);
Doig (1986);
Hedrik (1980);
Straaten et al. (1993);
Straaten (1994)

Theo van Doesburg , 1883-1931, Dutch painter, teacher, and writer. Together with Mondrian he founded the magazine De Stijl and successfully proselytized in Europe for the new aesthetic of abstraction, simplicity, clarity, and harmony. He influenced Gropius and taught at the Bauhaus and in Berlin from 1921 to 1923. In 1926 he developed a more dynamic version of De Stijl principles, called elementarism. The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, has several of his compositions.

van Doesburg, Theo (1883–1931). See Doesburg.