De Stijl, translating to “The Style,” is a Dutch artistic movement which often features abstract compositions containing lines and the colors black, white and primaries. It was founded in 1917 and ended in 1928. De Stijl was a collective artistic movement, but the artists barely knew each other or worked with other. Despite this, they were often aware of each other’s work which lead to the development of common conceptual characteristics and style, a “universal juxtaposition.” In addition, within the De Stijl movement, Theo Van Doesburg founded the magazine entitled De Stijl to help promote and unify the artistic movement itself. In result, this magazine further enforced the formation of the common De Stijl codes of abstract geometric representation.

Within the simple composition of all De Stijl works, the artist’s use of line and color greatly elude to a larger understanding of the work itself. The artists of the movement believed that “simplified geometric [art] could also convey meaning – and indeed more clearly – by simple but ‘universal’ juxtapositions” of orthogonals, primary colors and neutral colors (Overy 21). The symbolism of line and color give a greater depth and understanding of the De Stijl works and the movement as a whole, focusing on how the individual elements work as parts of a whole to create a deeper sense of space, perspective and the destruction of a subject, ultimately fueling the utopian ideal that the De Stijl movement instilled within all of its artists. These three topics of space, perspective and destruction are the basis for the creation of all De Stijl work through the artist’s greater symbolic use of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines, primary colors and black and white colors.

Through this website, you can explore the different aspects of De Stijl. You can observe common De Stijl motifs within the movement, how each composition relates back to the idea of space, perspective and destruction, and finally how each individual element has a strong effect on the viewer.