Theo Van Doesburg

Doesburg was one of the founders of the De Stijl movement. Doesburg’s idea was a vision for harmony after the atrocities and conflict of ww1. He worked with the artist Piet Mondrian for a while before the pair split due to their different beliefs for harmony in the future. This would lead them to create their own unique versions of the De Stijl movement. Elementarism was Doesburg’s version, he would use diagonals as he believed they were a dynamic element that represented his vision for utopia. He viewed the diagonals as a way to add variety in his pieces as a contrast to the work being produced by Mondrian. Doesburg believed that art should be an experience that concerns a spatial and environmental awareness. He viewed abstraction as a concept that could achieve a new social order, which would lead to universal harmony around the world. He thought that the movements reductive style had moral and spiritual qualities that would radiate out to the wider world beyond the art community.

The piece Counter-Composition in Dissonance 16 (1925) is an example of the diagonal principles that doesburg wanted to use from his Elementarism approach to De Stijl. As previously stated, Doesburg wanted to use the diagonals to make the pieces more dynamic. The adding of the diagonals also makes the piece more complex when compared to the more simplistic approach to de stijl by Mondrian. The carefully constructed geometric shapes are formed through the de stijl reductionist style. He uses a limited variation of colours that are derived from primary colours. In my opinion, the contrast of light and dark is indicative of some abstract form of depth. Although, this point does go against the ideas that Doesburg was using to inform his work. He wanted to stay away from using depth as this would then begin to take him back to the traditional styles of creating art.

Title: Counter-Composition in Dissonance 16

Date: 1925

Media: oil, canvas

Dimensions: 100 x 180 cm