Protomodernism: De Stijl

       Protomodernism is a movement made up of 4 different styles. These styles include the Deutscher Werkbund movement, Vienna Succession, De Stijl, and Frank Lloyd Wright's Prairie Style. Deutscher Werkbund began in Germany in 1892 with the purpose of having the highest quality design with the ability of being mass produced. Like the Arts and Crafts movement, Deutscher Werkbund was a protest against the artistic establishment but they embraced the use of machines.The Vienna Secession on the other hand, ha no ties to historical or academic styles of design. A few of the designers for this movement include. Joseph Olbrich, Josef Hoffman, and Otto Wagner. Gustav Klimt was the major artist. He believed that there should be a union between art and design and frequently used the subconscious as the subject matter for his work. Klimt used a lot of gold in his pieces. Below is one of his works of art.

      De Stijl began in the Netherlands in 1917 and means " the style" in Dutch. The style focuses on elementary shapes, colors, flat surfaces, vertical, and horizontal lines. The major architect was Gerrit Rietveld. Rietveld was the most influential designer of the century. He was a designer and an architect but he had originally began as a cabinetmaker in his father's shop. Rietveld's iconic home is the Schroder House built in the Netherlands in 1924. The home features a flexible floor plan with walls that slide in and out of place. the walls of the home were constructed with brick and plaster. Below are sketches of the Schroder House.

       Rietveld's most famous chair is the Red and Blue Chair. He also created a side table that mimicks the playful uses of different horizontal and vertical planes and the merging of both.

       The major artist for the style was Piet Mondrian. Mondrian was inspired by the cubist art form from France. He also waimed to express equilibrium and harmony as purely as possible. The only colors used in this style were primary colors.  

PAST APPLICATIONS:

CURRENT APPLICATIONS:

       One thing that I find interesting is that the De Stijl style made it's way into the fashion scene. The images below are examples of current applications of the De Stijl style in fashion and in furniture design as well.

 

EXTRA CREDIT:
    1. September 2015 fashion article about the inspiration of Piet Mondrain for high-end fashion designs
https://www.telamoda.com/outfit-of-the-day/piet-mondrian/  

2. I found a fun video about the evolution of Piet Mondrian and his De Stijl designs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSCmWnIoRpI