De Stijl, Russian Revolution & The Bauhaus
The De Stijl Movement
The De Stijl movement, otherwise known as ‘The Style’, was a dutch design movement and magazine introduced after the period of the first world war in and around the Netherlands. Founded in 1917 by a group of artists, designers and architects like Piet Mondrian, Theo Van Doesburg, Gerrit Rietveld and Bart Van Der Leck the design movement focused on created a fresh start to visual arts and design through the use of cubism and geometric abstraction, this new approach and outlook on design was often referred to as nieuwe beelding or neo-plasticism and aimed to create a universal language through the use of geometric abstractionism and cubism in a modern society. After Theo Van Doesburg served two years in the army throughout the First World War he returned to become a pioneer of the De Stijl movement and was recognised as being the most influential artist/designer of the De Stijl design movement. While the design movement drew influence from other art movements around that period like the avant-garde movement throughout western civilisations in Europe and the United States, the principles and idioms of the De Stijl movement had a huge impact on the Art Deco movement that came to follow.[2]
“The old is connected with the individual. The new is connected with the universal.” – Theo Van Doesburg[2]
After its introduction in 1917 the design movement was introduced to The Bauhaus school of design by Theo Van Doesburg in 1921 where he was situated in Weimar at the time, the design movement quickly became popular throughout the infamous Bauhaus design school through its use of straight lines, geometric shapes like squares and rectangles, modern and simplistic sans-serif typefaces and unconventional and interesting asymmetrical compositions. With the movements focus on typography and the design of typographical elements the movement and magazine became a huge influence for the new international typography style that is still translated into modern design we see today before coming to an abrupt end in 1931 where the movement began to lose steam and fade out due to new interests within the design industry and the introduction of the Bauhaus design movement.[5]
Piet Mondrian
Piet Mondrian, born in 1872, was one of the most influential creators and leaders of the De Stijl design movement throughout The Netherlands and the rest of Europe in the 19th century before passing away in 1944 after the Second World War.[2] Originally known for his landscape paintings, Piet Mondrian began to steer away from the traditional landscape paintings and started to create work that symbolised the forced of nature influenced by famous artists like Vincent Van Gogh where he began to develop the philosophies and visual forms of the De Stijl design movement. In. 1912, Piet Mondrian moved to Paris, France where he began to introduce the idea of cubism into his paintings and started to become recognised for his work involving cubism and cubist paintings, Mondrian later returned to the Netherlands in 1914 where he resided throughout the First World War.[1]
I have included some of Piet Mondrian’s work below to illustrate his use of cubism throughout his paintings and his influence on the Des Stijl design movement in the 19th century.
Theo Van Doesburg
Theo Van Doesburg, born in 1883, is considered to be the founder and the pioneer of the dutch design movement De Stijl throughout the early 1900’s and is often considered to be one of the most influential designer of all time even after his passing in 1931 in his late 40’s.[2] Doesburg was considered one of the main ambassadors of the De Stijl design movement throughout the early 1900’s where he began promoting the idioms of the De Stijl movement across Europe. While Theo van Doesburg was highly recognised for his work as a painter, architect and his love for poetry, his work had a huge impact on design as a whole having an influence on industries like architecture, design and typography throughout the 20th century. Doesburg shared many of the same thoughts as Piet Mondrian around geometric abstractionism in design by using basic geometric shapes to create a simplistic, modern composition. He came into contact with Piet Mondrian in 1915, around the start of the First World War, where they quickly became good friends communicating through written letters as this was the only form of communication in those days, Theo van Doesburg then moved to Weimar in 1922 where he started to share his ideas of geometric abstractionism and the Des Stijl design movement with The Bauhaus school of Design.[6]
I have included some of Theo Van Doesburg’s work below to illustrate his influence on the De Stijl design movement and his use of geometric abstractionism throughout his work.
Russian Revolution & Constructivism
The Russian constructivist movement was first introduced in 1914 around the time of the First World War and was a brief design movement originating from Russia after political and social trauma as a result of WWI, the movement was heavily orientated around the use of typography and photography and shared the same ideas to that of the De Stijl design movement where they focused on cubist and modernist idioms coining the term cube-futurism. The Russian constructivist design movement was short lived but had a huge influence on graphic design and visual arts throughout the 20th century where it was accelerated throughout the Russian revolution in the early 1900’s. The design movement has a heavy focus on cubism and futurism with its use of colour, photography and typography to create a more modern form of design that aimed to create a realist perception of the world through its form and composition where they rejected the role of politics and socialism in design. The constructivist movement was first recognised by the Russian designer El Lissitzky who had a passion for photography, painting, graphic design, typography and architecture throughout the 20th century.[1]
El Lissitzky
El Lissitzky, born in 1890, is considered on of the most influential names in design from the Russian constructivist movement around the period off the First World War and was renowned for his work in a variety of different mediums from photography and graphic design to painting and architecture before he passed away in 1941. He was often thought of as a visionary in visual arts and changed the way we interpret graphic design, he saw the constructivist movement and the Russian revolution as a new beginning for mankind after destruction created from WWI in the early 1900’s. Lissitzky primarily focused on using photomontage, printing, typography, graphic design and painting in his work and shared the same ideas to the De Stijl movement of cubism and futurism that was around the same time period as the constructivist movement. After the First World War, El Lissitzky returned to Russia where he began a career in architecture before travelling to Europe where he shared his thoughts and ideas on design and came across the De Stijl, Bauhaus, Dadaist and other constructivist movements around that era. In 1921, Lissitzky began teaching at the VKhUTEMAS art school in Moscow, Russia where I taught architecture as the head of architecture.[1]
I have included some of El Lissitzky’s work below to illustrate how he pioneered the Russian revolution and the Russian constructivist design movement.
Alexander Rodchenko
Another pioneer of the Russian constructivist movement was Alexander Rodchenko, Rodchenko was was Russian artist and design who was considered on of the most versatile designers of that era where he worked with various different mediums like painting, sculpting, photography and graphic design. Primarily know for his work with painting and photography, Rodchenko originally worked as a painter and graphic designer before diving into photography where he started to make a name for himself throughout the period of the First World War. Alexander Rodchenko was born in 1891 and is considered to be one of the founders and most influential figures of the Russian constructivist design movement and is often thought to be one of the most influential and versatile names to emerge from the Russian revolution and the First World War with his approach to graphic design, visual arts, typography and photomontage before he passed away in 1956. A famous quote from Alexander Rodchenko reads “One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again.” which states that we should look and consider design from all aspects and different perspectives to allow us to understand and fully display the meaning behind what is trying to be communicated to the audience.[7]
“One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole again and again.” – Alexander Rodchecnko[7]
I have included some of Alexander Rodchenko’s work below to illustrate how he influenced and founded the Russian revolution and the constructivist design movement.
The Bauhaus Movement
The Bauhaus design movement is considered one of the most influential design movements in history and is often one of the most recognised design movements in the design industry, the movement aimed to create design for the future with a heavy focus on typography, shape, colour and revolved around modernism and simplicity by rejecting the traditional old-style design that used more decorative design elements, instead they drew inspiration from expressionism.[2] Designers from the Bauhaus movement set themselves limitations when designing, the most common limitation being in the use of colour where it was common for artists to exclusively use the primary colours blue, yellow and red. The Bauhaus school situated in Weimar, Germany was founded in 1919 and sparked the new revolutionary design movement that had a heavy focus on typography, graphic design and architecture throughout the 20th century, After El Lissitzky travelled to Europe in the early 1920’s[1] he began to share his ideas and approached to design which had a huge influence on the Bauhaus design movement and the fundamentals and principles they focused on, this created a new wave of design where we started to focus more on simplicity and geometric shapes used within design. One of the most common traits of the Bauhaus movement was its use of grid systems to create organised compositions and layouts, the exclusive use of sans-serif typefaces which portrayed the geometric idea that the movement so heavily revolved around and the use of colour, this allowed the movement to become a huge influence for other movements that followed like the new wave of typography and the Swiss design movement ultimately paving the way for the future of design, this is still evident in modern design we see today. The Bauhaus school was later shut down after the rein of Hilter and Nazi Germany where they seized the school building during the Second World War as they didn’t believe in the ideas of The Bauhaus design movement, the closure of the school led many designers to relocate across Western Europe and the United States to allow them to carry on with their practises in design which allowed the movement to spread like wildfire across the world.[5]
Bauhaus Manifesto
The Bauhaus manifest was originally written by German architect Walter Gropius who was the founder and created of The Bauhaus School of design in the 20th century. The manifesto was published in newspapers across Germany in 1919 and aimed to establish the idioms and philosophies of The Bauhaus School upon its opening in the same year, Gropius aimed to create a new unity for visual arts and technology and focused primarily on solving problems that were created in visual arts from the birth of the industrial revolution and the invention of the machine. His main philosophy wad to breathe a new life and soul into the dying product of the machine that was a result of industrialism and to solve the problems it had created.[1]
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, born in 1895, is one of the most recognised names when referring to the Bauhaus School and the Bauhaus design movement, sharing the same outlook and principles of design as the Bauhaus movement and other constructivist design movements Laszlo loved to explore a range of different tools and mediums from painting, photography, film, sculptures and graphic design. Originally from Hungary, the Hungarian artist relocated to Berlin, Germany in 1920 where he began to get involved with the Bauhaus School sharing his influence of the Russian Revolution and the Russian constructivist design movement and the De Stijl movement after meeting Theo Van Doesburg and El Lissitzky. Laszlo began to experiment with new materials and technologies that were emerging around that period like plastics and acrylic resin in addition to light, kinetic motion, photography and photomontage. Assisted by the infamous Josef Muller Brockmann, Laszlo slowly began to have a huge influence on the curriculum and teaching criteria ate the Bauhaus School by sharing his knowledge on the fundamentals of visual design and graphic design. He quickly became a recognisable name throughout The Bauhaus School and The Bauhaus design movement and worked along side the founder of the school, Walter Gropius, to represent the school and what they were trying to achieve throughout the early 1900’s and the 20th century.[1]
References & Sources
- B. Meggs, P., W. Purvis, A., 2016. Meggs’ History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons.
- J., S., 2019. Graphic Design: A New History. Yale University Press.
- Lupton, E. and Cole, J., 2015. Graphic Design: The New Basics. Princeton Architectural Press.
- Dabner, D., Stewart, S., Zempol, E. and Vickress, A., 2017. Graphic Design School. Thames & Hudson.
- Livingston, A. and Livingston, I., 2012. The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers. Thames & Hudson.
- Wikipedia. 2021. Theo van Doesburg – Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Doesburg.
- Wikipedia. 2021. Alexander Rodchenko – Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Rodchenko.