Destijl movement Utopian values

The functional space is strictly divided into rectangular surfaces having no individuality of their own. As a poet, painter, innovator, but above all an architect, Van Doesburg believed that the ideals of De Stijl were not just isolated to painting, but also played a tangible role in modern construction of the external world. The overall effect was one of openness and weightlessness using planes and lines that appeared to hover in space. Neo-plasticism was the theory that art was to be entirely abstract , that only right angles in the horizontal and the vertical, representing male and female opposing forces were to be used and that the colours were to be simple primaries supplemented with black, white and grey. The De Stijl members believed that this universal enlightenment and harmony was obscured by the individualism and irrelevancies of life. Unfortunately, these beliefs were largely unrealistic.

Mondrian also believed that ‘We now learn to translate reality in our imagination into constructions which can be controlled by reason, in order to recover these same constructions later given natural reality, thus penetrating nature by means of plastic vision. Ironically, the artists themselves were instrumental in the fading away of their work. By breaking down the organic representation and reducing it to two dimensional planes, line and colour, their harmonious ideals were embodied in this absolute abstraction. Though the commission was not ultimately carried out, the studies that these designs included provided the group with a formula that was influential on other projects, one being the design of his own house in Meudon in 1930. Mondrian, rather than using colour as a vehicle for mystery, wanted to fully reveal it by using primary colours. From the founding ideals of Van Doesburg to the simplification of form by Mondrian and the three dimensional applications of Gerrit Rietveld, the utopian values were evident in the belief of simple art for the masses.