Modernism: De Stijl – Gerrit Rietveld

Dutch for The Style (pronounced the same), De Stijl was the name of a group of artists and architects who gathered around the largely theoretical architect Theo van Doesburg. During the tumultuous decade following World War I, De Stijl artists set out to create a universal style in painting, architecture and design, using rectangles and squares in flat planes of bold primary colors and black, gray and white, all carefully orchestrated with straight lines. The compelling geometric paintings of Piet Mondrian and equally striking furniture of Gerrit Rietveld have become oft-quoted classics of 20th-century design.

Part of the Modernism Web site, featuring objects from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and curator David Ryan, this video was originally produced in 1999. http://www.artsmia.org/modernism/