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Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg (Dutch: [ˈteːjoː vɑn ˈduzbʏr(ə)x]; born Christian Emil Marie Küpper; 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch painter, writer, poet and architect. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl.
Theo van Doesburg was born Christian Emil Marie Küpper on 30 August 1883, in Utrecht, Netherlands, as the son of the photographer Wilhelm Küpper and Henrietta Catherina Margadant. After a short period of training in acting and singing, he decided to become a storekeeper. He always regarded his stepfather, Theodorus Doesburg, to be his natural father, so that his first works are signed with Theo Doesburg, to which he later added "van".
Van Doesburg married three times: on 4 May 1910 to theosophist, poet and writer Agnita Henrica Feis; on 30 May 1917 to accountant Helena 'Lena' Milius; and on 24 November 1928 to artist, pianist and choreographer Petronella 'Nelly' Johanna van Moorsel.
His first exhibition was in 1908. From 1912 onwards, he supported his works by writing for magazines. At the time, he considered himself to be a modern painter, although his early work is more in line with the Amsterdam Impressionists and Vincent van Gogh. This changed in 1913 after reading Wassily Kandinsky's Rückblicke, an autobiographical retrospective on Kandinsky's life and artwork. Van Doesburg realized there was a higher, more spiritual level in painting that originates from the mind rather than from everyday life, and that abstraction is the only logical outcome of this. In 1912, Van Doesburg began criticizing Futurism in his articles: "The mimetic expression of velocity (whatever its form may be: the aeroplane, the automobile, and so on) is diametrically opposed to the character of painting, the supreme origin of which is to be found in inner life". On 6 November 1915, he wrote in the same journal: "Mondrian realizes the importance of line. The line has almost become a work of art in itself; one can not play with it when the representation of objects perceived was all-important. The white canvas is almost solemn. Each superfluous line, each wrongly placed line, any color placed without veneration or care, can spoil everything—that is, the spiritual".
In 1915 (halfway through his two-year service in the army), Van Doesburg reviewed an exhibition by Piet Mondrian for a magazine article. Inspired by Mondrian's depictions of abstraction, Van Doesburg got in contact with Mondrian, and together with related artists Bart van der Leck, Antony Kok, Vilmos Huszár and Jacobus Oud, they founded the magazine De Stijl in 1917.
Although De Stijl was made up of many members, Van Doesburg was the "ambassador" of the movement, promoting the ideas of Neoplasticism across Europe. He moved to Weimar in 1922, deciding to make an impression on the Bauhaus principal, Walter Gropius, to spread the influence of the movement.
While Gropius accepted many of the precepts of contemporary art movements, he did not feel that Doesburg should become a Bauhaus master. As a response, Doesburg installed himself near the Bauhaus buildings and started to attract school students interested in the new ideas of Constructivism, Dadaism, and De Stijl.
The friendship between Van Doesburg and Mondrian remained strong in these years, although their primary means of communication was by letter. In 1923 Van Doesburg moved to Paris, together with his later wife Nelly van Moorsel. As the two men interacted more, the differences in character became apparent: Mondrian was an introvert, while van Doesburg was more flamboyant and extravagant. During 1924, they disagreed extensively, which eventually led to a temporary split that year. The exact reason for the split has been a point of contention among art historians; usually the divergent ideas about the directions of the lines in the paintings have been named as the primary reason: Mondrian never accepted diagonals, whereas Doesburg insisted on the dynamic aspects of the diagonal and featured it in his art. Mondrian accepted some concepts of diagonals, such as in his "Lozenge" paintings, where the canvas was rotated 45 degrees, while still maintaining horizontal lines. In recent years, however, this theory has been challenged by art historians such as Carel Blotkamp, who cites the artist's different concepts about space and time. After the split, Van Doesburg launched a new concept for his art, Elementarism, which was characterized by the diagonal lines and which rivaled Mondrian's Neo-Plasticism.
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Theo van Doesburg
Theo van Doesburg (Dutch: [ˈteːjoː vɑn ˈduzbʏr(ə)x]; born Christian Emil Marie Küpper; 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch painter, writer, poet and architect. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl.
Theo van Doesburg was born Christian Emil Marie Küpper on 30 August 1883, in Utrecht, Netherlands, as the son of the photographer Wilhelm Küpper and Henrietta Catherina Margadant. After a short period of training in acting and singing, he decided to become a storekeeper. He always regarded his stepfather, Theodorus Doesburg, to be his natural father, so that his first works are signed with Theo Doesburg, to which he later added "van".
Van Doesburg married three times: on 4 May 1910 to theosophist, poet and writer Agnita Henrica Feis; on 30 May 1917 to accountant Helena 'Lena' Milius; and on 24 November 1928 to artist, pianist and choreographer Petronella 'Nelly' Johanna van Moorsel.
His first exhibition was in 1908. From 1912 onwards, he supported his works by writing for magazines. At the time, he considered himself to be a modern painter, although his early work is more in line with the Amsterdam Impressionists and Vincent van Gogh. This changed in 1913 after reading Wassily Kandinsky's Rückblicke, an autobiographical retrospective on Kandinsky's life and artwork. Van Doesburg realized there was a higher, more spiritual level in painting that originates from the mind rather than from everyday life, and that abstraction is the only logical outcome of this. In 1912, Van Doesburg began criticizing Futurism in his articles: "The mimetic expression of velocity (whatever its form may be: the aeroplane, the automobile, and so on) is diametrically opposed to the character of painting, the supreme origin of which is to be found in inner life". On 6 November 1915, he wrote in the same journal: "Mondrian realizes the importance of line. The line has almost become a work of art in itself; one can not play with it when the representation of objects perceived was all-important. The white canvas is almost solemn. Each superfluous line, each wrongly placed line, any color placed without veneration or care, can spoil everything—that is, the spiritual".
In 1915 (halfway through his two-year service in the army), Van Doesburg reviewed an exhibition by Piet Mondrian for a magazine article. Inspired by Mondrian's depictions of abstraction, Van Doesburg got in contact with Mondrian, and together with related artists Bart van der Leck, Antony Kok, Vilmos Huszár and Jacobus Oud, they founded the magazine De Stijl in 1917.
Although De Stijl was made up of many members, Van Doesburg was the "ambassador" of the movement, promoting the ideas of Neoplasticism across Europe. He moved to Weimar in 1922, deciding to make an impression on the Bauhaus principal, Walter Gropius, to spread the influence of the movement.
While Gropius accepted many of the precepts of contemporary art movements, he did not feel that Doesburg should become a Bauhaus master. As a response, Doesburg installed himself near the Bauhaus buildings and started to attract school students interested in the new ideas of Constructivism, Dadaism, and De Stijl.
The friendship between Van Doesburg and Mondrian remained strong in these years, although their primary means of communication was by letter. In 1923 Van Doesburg moved to Paris, together with his later wife Nelly van Moorsel. As the two men interacted more, the differences in character became apparent: Mondrian was an introvert, while van Doesburg was more flamboyant and extravagant. During 1924, they disagreed extensively, which eventually led to a temporary split that year. The exact reason for the split has been a point of contention among art historians; usually the divergent ideas about the directions of the lines in the paintings have been named as the primary reason: Mondrian never accepted diagonals, whereas Doesburg insisted on the dynamic aspects of the diagonal and featured it in his art. Mondrian accepted some concepts of diagonals, such as in his "Lozenge" paintings, where the canvas was rotated 45 degrees, while still maintaining horizontal lines. In recent years, however, this theory has been challenged by art historians such as Carel Blotkamp, who cites the artist's different concepts about space and time. After the split, Van Doesburg launched a new concept for his art, Elementarism, which was characterized by the diagonal lines and which rivaled Mondrian's Neo-Plasticism.