De Stijl

The term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands. De Stijl is also the name of a journal that was published by the Dutch painter, designer, writer, and critic Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931), propagating the group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members were the painters Piet Mondrian (1872–1944), Vilmos Huszár (1884–1960), and Bart van der Leck (1876–1958), and the architects Gerrit Rietveld (1888–1964), Robert van 't Hoff (1887–1979), and J.J.P. Oud (1890–1963). The artistic philosophy that formed a basis for the group's work is known as neoplasticism — the new plastic art (or Nieuwe Beelding in Dutch).

Mondrian himself sets forth these delimitations in his essay 'Neo-Plasticism in Pictorial Art'. He writes, "... this new plastic idea will ignore the particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the contrary, it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour, that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour."

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This is the influence that provides more satisfaction than any other influences in art for me....although in my work, colors are more expansive and the patterns have more variety. I keep coming back to this movement as a reference because it brings harmony and peacefulness. I'm rejecting any further struggle with organic forms. Unless I experience another evolution or backward glance, I feel the style I am most comfortable with is strictly geometric. It has taken two years of experimentation in SL to finally find a resting place. I am there. I see the potential to keep me occupied with unlimited experiences within this realm of expression.