De Stijl, Russian Constructivism, and the Foundations of the Modern Movement

The Shift to a Technological Ideology and Industrial Imagery

• The Rejection of Nature: The world is described as having moved beyond nature, which the speaker states is "gone." The environment is now defined as technological.
• Ideological Belief: Embracing technology is not merely a matter of using new imagery; it is an active ideological belief. This group believes that modern culture must be fundamentally technological.
• Visual Vocabulary of the Machine:
      * Images include electrical plants, power lines, generators, and great dams with water turbines.
      * Characterized as the "images of marinating shovel" (proper noun verbatim from transcript).
      * Development of new residential housing forms that include viaducts and trusses at the lower levels, defining the "city of technology."
• Impact of World War One ($1914$):
      * The war began with the assassination of the Archduke in $1914$.
      * By the fall of $1914$, Europe was fully at war.
      * Marinetti survived the war and brought Futurist proposals to the "De Steele Group" in The Netherlands.
      * The architect Santalita was killed in the war in $1916$, preventing the realization of his vision.

The De Stijl Group (The Style) and Neoplasticism

• Origins and Terminology:
      * Often referred to as "De Stijl" (Style), "Neoplasticism," or the "Rotterdam School."
      * Centered in Rotterdam, contrasting with the Expressionists of the "Amsterdam School."
      * The group rejected Expressionism, viewing it as the "wrong direction."
• Influence of Berlage: The group was aware of Berlage’s work (e.g., the Exchange in Amsterdam) and interpreted it not as Expressionist, but as a rational and abstract approach to architecture.
• Core Principles: Emphasis is placed on the rational, the disciplined, and an exclusive, step-by-step process of development.
• Historical Context ($1911$-$1918$):
      * The group began meeting in $1911$.
      * The Netherlands remained neutral during World War One ($1914$-$1918$). While other countries focused on the destruction of war, Dutch artists and architects could observe and react to it from a distance, allowing them to develop in a unique direction.

Piet Mondrian’s Path to Abstraction

• Chronological Development of Work:
      * $1908$: A representation of a forest; recognizable but slightly abstract.
      * $1910$ (The Red Tree): Recognizable as a tree, but the surface of the painting begins to break into fragments.
      * $1911$ (The Gray Tree): Further fragmentation; the tree is nearly dissolving into abstract patterns on the canvas.
      * $1911$-$1912$ (Still Life): Influenced by Cubism (Picasso and Braque). Features a recognizable vase but functions primarily as an abstract composition.
      * $1914$: Paintings lose titles relating to objects; they are renamed "Composition" and consist of abstract lines and colors.
      * $1917$ (Composition with Line): Interpreted as light reflecting on a rippled water surface; the abstraction is nearly total.
      * $1918$ (Composition with color planes and gray lines number one): After four years of war and devastation across Europe, Mondrian seeks the "fundamentals" of painting: colors, lines, and the canvas itself.
      * $1922$: Realization of the famous paintings of total abstraction.

Theo van Duisburg and De Stijl Media

• Purification of Art: Van Duisburg, a key figure, advocated for the purification of art and architecture, rejecting traditional powers (Germany, Austria, Hungary, France) whose systems led to the deaths of millions.
• Key Artworks:
      * Card Players: A composition where fingers and cards are represented as abstract rectangles.
      * Pedagogical Paintings: Van Duisburg created sequences showing how to move from a portrait through layers of abstraction to reach a final, totally abstract state.
• Graphic Design and Typography:
      * The De Stijl group invented "sans serif" type fonts (e.g., Arial, Helvetica), removing the "feet" found on fonts like Times New Roman.
      * The group published the magazine "De Stijl," which used modern graphic composition involving white space, different letter scales, and division of pages by lines and floating elements.

Sculpture and Early De Stijl Architecture

• George von Tangerloo: A sculptor for the group whose work bridged the gap between sculpture and architecture.
      * Key work: "Construction of volumetric inner relationships derived from the inscribed square, and the square circumscribed by a circle" ($1920$).
• Robert Van’t Hoff: The first De Stijl architect.
      * Hennie House: Made of reinforced concrete, utilizing the Wasmuth portfolio of Frank Lloyd Wright as a reference but abstracting it.
      * Characteristics: Smooth surfaces, no reference to material textures, crisp lines, and an emphasis on "machined quality."
• JJP Oud: Associated with the group but never officially joined.
      * Designed a factory project with a center that resembled a De Stijl sculptural composition.
      * Designed the Cafe de Uni in Rotterdam, an abstract front elevation that functions like a pinwheel, making it difficult for the eye to rest on a single point.

Garrett Rietveld and the Red Blue Chair

• Red Blue Chair ($1917$): The first fully realized De Stijl three-dimensional aesthetic achievement.
• Aesthetic Principles:
      * Floating Planes: The seat and back are planes that appear to float in space.
      * Line Extensions: The frame is black with white ends, suggesting the lines could extend infinitely.
      * Dynamic Space: The chair is not meant for an enclosed room but responds to the "space of science" and physics that extends infinitely in all directions.
      * Elementarism: Verticals slide past horizontals; nothing is anchored in a traditional way. It represents a "snapshot" of moving elements.

The Schroeder House ($Utrecht$)

• Status: The canonical De Stijl work, located at the end of a row of traditional houses.
• Exterior Features:
      * Composed of planes in space, lines, and primary colors.
      * Uses concrete, metal, and glass.
      * Cantilevered decks, balconies, and metal handrails.
      * Anti-gravitational Intent: Designed to seem as if gravity does not exist; elements are equal in all directions.
• Interior Features (The Living Floor):
      * Uses folding and sliding walls to change the space dynamically.
      * The entire upper floor can become one open space.
• The Corner Window: Features butt glazing with two pieces of glass coming together without a central support; one panel is operable, carrying the theme of transparency.
• Craftsmanship: Despite appearing machined and abstract, the house required extraordinary craft and precision, similar to a massive piece of furniture.

JJP Oud and Pragmatic Social Housing

• Conflict of Aesthetic and Budget: As the city architect of Rotterdam, Oud had to apply De Stijl ideas to mass housing.
• Keefook Housing:
      * Consists of white volumes in rows, vastly different from traditional gable-roofed housing.
      * Features smooth concrete walls and linear windows.
      * Trade-offs: The complex craft of the Schroeder House was abandoned for repetitive, efficient forms to meet limited budgets and provide housing for the masses.

Russian Constructivism ($1915$-$1923$)

• Context: Emerged after the $1917$ Bolshevik Revolution under Lenin.
• Rejection of Tradition: Initially sought to move away from the classical, neoclassical, and Baroque architecture associated with the czar and nobility.
• Vladimir Tatlin:
      * Created "counter reliefs" ($1915$) using the "detritus of industrial civilization": rusted metal sheets, wires, and glass.
      * Monument to the 3rd International ($1919$-$1920$):
          * An attempt at a modern, non-representational monument.
          * Designed as a giant asymmetrical spiral cone made of iron (steel technology was unavailable in Russia at the time).
          * Rotating Objects: Inside the spiral, a cube, a rectangle, and a cylinder rotate at different speeds.
          * Speeds: The small top object rotates every $24$ hours; the middle object rotates once a month; the bottom object rotates once a year.
          * Purpose: A giant abstract calendar/clock measuring time since the Bolshevik Revolution.
• El Lissitzky:
      * Designed the "Proun room" ($1923$) (misheard as "crown room"/"Lenin tree room"), utilizing lines and planes in space to represent physics and science.
      * Designed the "Lenin Tribune": A steel and concrete tower for speeches, featuring a massive counterweight and cantilevered elements.

Synthesis and the Modern Movement

• Elementarism: The idea of compositions made of distinct elements (planes, lines, volumes) that remain visible within the total work. This is a core tenant of the Modern Movement.
• International Exchange: After World War One, these ideas merged as artists and architects traveled.
      * Theo van Duisburg visited the Bauhaus and shared De Stijl work with Gropius.
      * El Lissitzky and Moholy-Nagy (influenced by Constructivism) traveled to Europe and the Bauhaus.
• Foundations of Modernism: The movement is a cluster of ideas including new technology, industrial imagery, structural rationalism, and a move away from centered, axial, traditional composition.