It was 50 years ago Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by the Beatles was released on the 1st of June, but 50 years before that date the DE STIJL group was founded in Leiden in 1917 with the publishing of the book de NIEUWE BEWEGING IN DE SCHILDERKUNST by Theo van Doesburg. Leiden , Utrecht ( home of the famous Rietveld huis) and Den Haag ( largest Mondrian/de Stijl collection in the world will be presenting exhibitions on DE STIJL and its influence on Modern Art. One basic thing about DE STIJL. Use of primary colors, dividing the surface in abstract elements. Mondrian and van Doesburg were originally friends and worked along these lines until van Doesburg thought his works were limited by the use of horizontal and vertical lines and wanted to use the “diagonal” too. This cooled down the friendship and van Doesburg decided to leave the group in 1924. Was it the end of the DE STIJL…no certainly not . The group stopped, but the ideas were there and were later found in BAUHAUS and constructivist modern art. To acknowledge the importance of DE STIJL is done now by these many exhibitions and certainly more than a few will be well worth visiting. Prepare yourself and look at the many DES TIJL/ Mondrian /van Doesburg publications available at www.ftn-books.com
PS . there is a very special bank by Ko Verzuu in blue and yellow which is exclusively available at ww.ftn-books.com. This was a prestige edition by the makers of ADO.
