Theo van Doesburg

After the First World War, the European avant-gardes longed for change and hoped for a better future. More than any other artist, Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) took part in this reconstruction effort by broadening Piet Mondrian’s Neoplastic aesthetic to all disciplines: painting, sculpture, architecture and the applied arts. Theo van Doesburg proposed a genuine revolution that sought to transform the world in every way, to create a new form of artistic expression, which would interact not only with life in all its complexity but also with scientific and technological developments. His constantly changing approach brought together apparently incompatible movements like Dadaism and Neoplasticism and sought to promote innovation, as demonstrated by his move towards Elementarism and then to Concrete Art.
To champion his project on the international stage, Van Doesburg, who was also the founder of the De Stijl movement and of the eponymous magazine, succeeded in bringing together all the leading artists. He is recognized as much for his visual achievements as for his means of accomplishing a philosophical, artistic and collective ideal. Many artists, including Mondrian, would largely owe their international renown to Theo van Doesburg.