"Design is thinking made visual."
—Saul Bass

Dutch:
Wat is Design? Veel producten, die in serie- en massafabricage worden gemaakt, zijn ontworpen door ontwerpers. Voor dit ontwerpproces wordt vaak de term design gebruikt. Een definitie van design is: 'het proces van het ontwerpen van producten, die in serie- en massafabricage worden gemaakt, met in acht name van constructieve, ergonomische, esthetische en markttechnische aspecten'.

Acrylnitrile contributes with thermal and chemical resistence, and the rubberlike butadiene gives ductility and impact strength. Styrene gives the glossy surface and makes the material easily machinable and less expensive.

Generally, ABS has good impact strength also at low temperatures. It has satisfactory stiffness and dimensional stability, glossy surface and is easy to machine. If UV-stabilizators are added, ABS is suitable for outdoor applications.

Some people think abstract art just means something weird-looking; this is incorrect. Weird is easy, but abstract work springs from, and must be responsive to, a physical reality.

For example, a brief summary of a written treatise such as a dissertation is called an abstract. It is based on the real thing but is a more concise version, getting immediately at its essential character.

A dominant theme of all forms of art in the twentieth century is alienation. Humankind is seen as removed from Nature, out of touch with inner or animal needs, disconnected from social bonds, and lacking a sense of continuity in time. Given all this, is it any wonder that abstract art is a central response?

Abstract art comes from spirit rather than from nature and in this sense abstract art is uniquely human. Because abstraction is rooted in humanness as distinct from "American-ness" or "male-ness," it complements the world unity found in technology and science. A color field painting, for instance, can speak outside the restrictions of language, culture, and geography.

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something.
—Pablo Picasso.

During the second half of the 20th century the artists followed the basic principals of the mordern art of before World War I. The difference is that after the first world war the artists were very emancipated. In stead of working in groups, many artists developed an individual style, sometimes combined with existing or older trends.

From 1960 on, the art movements were replacing each other more and more quickly. In 1980 one can count over 40 different art movements, existing closely together.The artists did not bound themselves to one movement anymore. They represented themselves in more than one movement.

Abstract Expressionism originated in the 1940s, and became popular in the 1950s.

Artists who painted in this style include Hans Hoffman (German-American, 1880-1966), Adolph Gottlieb (American, 1903-1974), Mark Rothko (American, 1903-1970), Willem De Kooning (Dutch-American, 1904-1997), Clyfford Still (American, 1904-1980), Barnett Newman (American, 1905-1970), Franz Kline (American, 1910-1962), William Baziotes (American, 1912-1963), Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956), Philip Guston (American, 1913-1980), Ad Reinhardt (American, 1913-1967), Robert Motherwell (American, 1915-1991), Sam Francis (American, 1923-1994), and Helen Frankenthaler (American, 1928).

Imagery which departs from representational accuracy, to a variable range of possible degrees, for some reason other than verisimilitude. Abstract artists select and then exaggerate or simplify the forms suggested by the world around them.

Verisimilitude
Appearing to be true or real (~likeness, realism, representation, simulacrum).

Aluminum melts at 1220°F (660.2°C) and can be cast and welded. It is available in a wide variety of colors (possible through a process called anodizing), and is often used in paints, foil, jewelry, and welding and is used when lightness combined with strength is desired. Aluminum is derived from the mineral bauxite.

Although bauxite is the most abundant metal in the earth's crust, the processes necessary to creating aluminum were not developed until 1825, and aluminum was not used extensively until the twentieth century.

Atomic symbol Al; atomic number 13; atomic weight 26.98; specific gravity 2.69; valence 3.

Het Scheepvaarthuis in Amsterdam (1916) wordt beschouwd als een stenen manifest van de `Amsterdamse School', waarbij beeldhouwwerk een belangrijke plaats innam. De architecten in die periode (Van der Mey, Piet Kramer, Michel de Klerk) propageerden een individualistische, emotionele kunst. De stijl is plastisch, twee- en driedimensionaal, met zware vormen en grillige decoraties; parabool- en trapeziumvormen komen veel voor.

Beeldhouwwerk neemt in de `Amsterdamse School' een belangrijke plaats in; belangrijke kunstenaars zijn Hildo Krop, John Rädecker, Bernard Richters en Theo Vos.

The battle for social recognition can result in several problems in the society. For example: jaelousy, theft, waste of resources and low usability of products. Do designers have a responsibility for the use of their products by consumers? Can designers design products, that won't allow consumers to show off and simultaneously have success on the consumer markets?

Dutch:
De strijd van het individu voor sociale erkenning kan resulteren in verschillende problemen in de maatschappij zoals: afgunst/diefstal, verkwisting en slechte bruikbaarheid van producten. Hebben productontwerpers een verantwoordelijkheid ten opzichte van de consument? Hebben ontwerpers die produkten ontwerpen, die niet voldoen aan de profileringswens van consumenten, weinig kans op de consumptiemarkt?

Artists, museum curators, art patrons, art educators, art critics, art historians, and others involved with art change their ideas about it over time. Early in the twentieth century, for instance, artists expanded the definition of art to include such things as abstraction, collage, and readymades. Even in the second half of the twentieth century, the artworld expanded its definition of art to include textiles, costumes, jewelry, photography, video, concepts, and performances as art. Only in the last ten or twenty years works of various native peoples have come to be considered art rather than artifacts.

However, people of some cultures do not (or refuse to) refer to some works as "art." Because of this, many people have taken to using the broader terms material culture or visual culture when referring to such works. No American Indian language includes such a word as art. The Japanese created such a word only after coming into contact with European ideas.

Art Deco is a movement involving a mix of modern decorative art styles, largely of the 1920s and 1930s, whose main characteristics were derived from various avant-garde painting styles of the early twentieth century. Art deco works exhibit aspects of Cubism, Russian Constructivism and Italian Futurism-- with abstraction, distortion, and simplification, particularly geometric shapes and highly intense colors--celebrating the rise of commerce, technology, and speed.

The growing impact of the machine can be seen in repeating and overlapping images from 1925; and in the 1930s, in streamlined forms derived from the principles of aerodynamics.

The name came from the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs Industriels et Modernes, held in Paris, which celebrated living in the modern world.

It was popularly considered to be an elegant style of cool sophistication in architecture and applied arts which range from luxurious objects made from exotic material to mass produced, streamlined items available to a growing middle class.

Art Déco is de stroming in de toegepaste kunsten die haar hoogtepunt bereikte in de jaren twintig van de 20ste eeuw, maar pas in de jaren zestig, toen deze stroming evenals de Jugendstil (art nouveau) weer sterk in de belangstelling kwam, als zodanig wordt aangeduid. Tegen de stroming van het functionalisme in (Nieuwe Bouwen) gaf art déco lucht aan de behoefte aan verfraaing en esthétiek.

De benaming, gevormd naar analogie van art nouveau (de Franse benaming voor de Jugendstil), is ontleend aan de wereldtentoonstelling l'Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes, die in 1925 in Parijs werd gehouden.

Art déco ontstond deels ook als reactie op de grillige vormen van de Jugendstil. Onder invloed van het kubisme werd de vormgeving strakker en eenvoudiger. De Ballets Russes van Diaghilev die vanaf 1909 in Parijs opgevoerd werden, inspireerden tot het gebruik van felle kleuren. Andere invloeden waren: Afrikaanse kunst, de zgn. Wiener Werkstätte (J. Hoffmann), fauvisme, oosterse kunst, expressionisme en futurisme. In de decoratiemotieven – guirlandes, mandjes met bloemen en vruchten, fonteinen en geometrische figuren – traden rechte lijnen en symmetrie op de voorgrond. Voorbeelden van art deco treft men zowel in Europa als in de Verenigde Staten aan. Belangrijke ontwerpers waren Cassandre en E.S. McKnight Kauffer (affiches), René Lalique (glaswerk) en Jean Puiforcat (zilver).

Dutch:
In de architectuur vormde art deco vaak een element binnen een andere architectuurstroming. In Nederland werd deze vormgeving bijv. vaak geïntegreerd in de Amsterdamse School (theater Tuschinski in Amsterdam, H.L. de Jong, 1921) en in Duitsland in het expressionisme (Paula Modersohn-Becker huis in Bremen, Bernard Hoetger, 1926). In Rotterdam kan men de hang naar meer decoratie ook terugvinden in het werk van Kromhout die een aantal massieve kantoorgebouwen heeft neergezet, die echter rijk gedecoreerd waren. Een overblijfsel is het voormalig kantoor van de Scheepvaart Vereniging Zuid (havenwerkgevers) aan de Pieter de Hooghweg. Een ander voorbeeld in Rotterdam is het Atlantic Huis van Buskens.

Dutch:
Deze stijl wordt ook wel Jugendstil genoemd. Een stijl in de architectuur, toegepaste kunst en beeldende kunst die rond 1890 ontstond en waarvan de bloeiperiode plaatsvond tussen 1895 en 1902. In de bouwkunst is dit de eerste geslaagde poging tot een eigentijdse, niet historiserende stijl sinds lange tijd. Kenmerkend is de voorkeur voor vloeiende lijnen in plaats van rechte lijnen. Andere kenmerken zijn: asymmetrie, veelvuldig gebruik van decoratieve patronen en gestileerde organische motieven. Belangrijke architecten waren onder andere de Belgen Horta en Van de Velde. In Nederland maakte Jan Toorop affiches in deze stijl. Een bekende schilder van international allure is Klimt.

Franse c.q. Duitse benaming voor de stijlvernieuwing rond 1900. Met name Art Nouveau komt voort uit de toegepaste, decoratieve kunsten. Samuel Bing opende in 1895 in Parijs een kunsthandel "Salon de l'Art Nouveau". De term is ontleend aan het sinds 1896 te München uitgegeven tijdschrift Die Jugend, waarvan Otto Eckmann de eerste jaargangen met karakteristieke vignetten en randversieringen illustreerde; in Groot-Brittannië spreekt men van art nouveau, modern style of Liberty style, naar de firma Liberty and Co. te Londen; in Italië van Stile Liberty of Stile Floreale, in Oostenrijk over Sezessionstil, naar de Weense groep Sezession De stijl kenmerkt zich vooral door de asymmetrie en de uitbundige sierlijke, beweeglijke lijnen. Met name het "zweepslagmotief" werd graag gehanteerd. Het kan worden gezien als een reactie op de opkomende massaproductie, die in de ogen van de aanhangers, de schoonheid uit het voorwerp had weggenomen. Als het voorwerp weer op de natuur werd gebaseerd, dan kon de schoonheid weer deel van het leven worden. Maar dan moest wel in alle disciplines van de kunst dit principe worden toegepast. Voor de bouwkunst bracht de toepassing van het ijzer als nieuw materiaal nieuwe constructieve mogelijkheden, maar de term Jugendstil heeft toch vnl. betrekking op de decoratie van bijv. trapleuningen, gevels, enz. IJzer leende zich goed voor verwerking tot de sierlijk gebogen vormen waarom de Jugendstil vroeg. De architecten waren veelal tevens interieurontwerpers. Gewijzigde sociale en economische omstandigheden, toepassing van nieuwe materialen (beton) brachten na de Eerste Wereldoorlog het einde van de Jugendstil.

In Nederland kent de Art Nouveau uiteenlopende verschijningsvormen. De geometrisch georiënteerde constructief-rationeel-maatschappelijke stroming vind met o.a. in Amsterdam rond Berlage, terwijl het sierlijke elegant-artistieke-pragmatisme meer in Den Haag en Rotterdam is te plaatsen.

In Rotterdam is het meest opvallende bouwwerk in deze stijl het Witte Huis aan de Wijnhaven (1897-1898) van Molenbroek. Andere mooie voorbeelden zijn de sociëteit van Roevereniging "de Maas" en het kantoor Van Uden aan de Veerhaven. Ook in Kralingen zijn, met name aan de Avenue Concordia en de Voorschoterlaan een aantal Art Nouveau huizen te zien.

A generic name for the American version of Arts and Crafts furniture is called Mission Style.

Ducth:
De Arts & Crafts-beweging streefde naar een herleving van het ambacht en naar verbetering van decoratieve ontwerpen en architectuur in Engeland. De kunstenaar moest ambachtsman en de ambachtsman moest kunstenaar worden. Vooral William Morris, C.R. Ashbee en Walter Crane zijn van belang in deze stroming. Vanuit een romantisch socialisme wees men de gemechaniseerde productie af en riep men het beeld van de ambachtelijk ideale middeleeuwen op. Diverse gildes werden opgericht en vaak trok men uit de stad naar het platteland. Na aanvankelijk veel invloed in Engeland, Duitsland en de Verenigde Staten uitgeoefend te hebben, werd de beweging later beschouwd als een doodlopende weg.

Around the turn of the century, the Belgian born scientist Dr. Leo Baekeland, working as an independent chemist, came upon the compound quite by accident. Anyone familiar with the newspaper printing business is aware of the Velox used as a proof; that was his first discovery. Velox was invented in 1899 and is still in use today. After selling the rights to this product to Eastman Kodak for three quarters of a million dollars, he started developing a less flammable bowling alley floor shellac; bowling was becoming the latest rage in New York City. Dr. Baekeland soon realized that a resin that was both insoluable and infusible could have a much wider appeal when used as a molding compound. He obtained a patent and started the Bakelite Corporation around 1910.

Phenolic resin could be produced in a multitude of colors, commonly yellow, brown, butterscotch, green and red. Ommitting the pigment could produce a transparent or translucent effect. The resin could be molded or cast, depending on variations in the formula. For molding, the formula was cooked until resinous, spread out in thin sheets to harden, then ground to a fine consistency. At this point, powdered fillers and pigment were added, to enable the resin to be molded and to add color. This mixture was then put through hot rollers which created large sheets of colored, hardened resin. These sheets were then ground into a very fine powder which was molded under high heat and pressure into the final product form. As a molded material the resin's drawback was the limited range of colors which could be created. For casting, the formula was modified slightly, enabling the resin to be poured into lead molds and then cured in ovens until it polymerized into a hard substance. The liquid resin could be tinted to any color or "marbelized" by mixing two colors together.

For the first ten years or so after its introduction, the resin was used primarily to make electrical and automobile insulators and heavy industrial products. Eventually, uses for the resin spread into the consumer market. Castings were made in the shape of cylinders or blocks, and then sold to novelty and jewelry makers. Industrial designers began experimenting with the new material. Fine craftsmen sculpted the molded products on fast wheels with razor-like tools to carve out designs that the world has not seen since; after World War II, most companies switched to creating designs through the use of patterned molds, instead of hand-carving. Bakelite replaced flammable celluloid, previously the most popular synthetic material for molded items, as a major substance for jewelry production.

The process to the collector of today may not be significant, as Bakelite is now treasured for its unique, unreproducible beauty. A deeply carved half inch bangle bracelet may sell for $225.00, and a two and one half inch bangle may command $900.00. Bakelite often acquires a patina within a few months to a few years of its date of production, and metamorphisizes into a completely different appearing color. The red, white and blue Bakelite designs of yesterday have mellowed into lovely yellows, reds and blacks, enhancing further the value of those rare pieces which have continued to maintain their original color and luster.

Bakelite's many uses allowed it to become a standard item in the family home of the 1930s and 1940s. It was frequently found in the kitchen, in the form of flatware handles, rabbit or chicken napkin holders, salt and pepper shakers, or serving trays. During the Depression Bakelite sold more than any other commercial product, and was loved by the public for its brilliant and cheerful colors and its affordability.

When the Bakelite patent expired in 1927, it was acquired by the Catalin Corporation that same year. They began mass production under the name Catalin, using the cast resin formula which enabled Catalin to add 15 new colors to the original five produced by the Bakelite Corporation, which used the limited color range molded formula, as well as the now-famous marbelized effect. One of their most notable products was the Fada bullet radio. The Catalin Corporation was responsible for nearly 70% of all phenolic resins that exist today.

Bakelite-Catalin was sold mostly by Saks Fifth Avenue, B. Altman and Bonwit Teller, but was also on the shelves of F.W. Woolworth and Sears. To the wealthy socialites, whose husbands had fallen on tough times during the Depression, with Tiffany diamonds and Cartier jewelry now well beyond their means, the vibrantly colorful carved jewelry adorned with rhinestones became de riguer for cocktail parties and formal dinners. Yet, Catalin and Bakelite were within everyone's reach with Depression prices ranging from twenty cents to three dollars. Diana Vreeland, editor of Vogue, often spoke of the versatility of Bakelite, as did Elsa Schiaparelli, who was constantly contracting with the Bakelite and Catalin Corporations for exclusive buttons for her dress designs.

But in 1942 Bakelite and Catalin suspended sales of their colorful cylinders to costume jewelry manufacturers in order to concentrate on the wartime needs of a nation which had totally shifted its focus. Defense phones and aviator goggles, as well as thousands of other Bakelite products, found their way to armed forces around the world. The scheme shifted from the 200 vibrant colors which brightened the dark days of the Depression to basic black, the no-nonsense symbol of a nation at war. By the end of the war, new technology had given birth to injection-molded plastics, and most manufacturers switched to less labor-intensive and more practical means of developing products. The next generation of plastics had been born - lucite, fibreglass, vinyl and acrylic - and they were molded into products commonplace in our everyday lives today.

Bakelite and Catalin became obsolete, but survive in the hearts of collectors who hunt flea markets, swap meets and antique shows for the Depression treasures of a generation now consigned to the pages of history. Bakelite was given a boost in the mid-1970s by artist, photographer, and flea market icon Andy Warhol who fell in love with Bakelite carvings and whimsical Martha Sleeper pins, and amassed one of the largest collections.

A very influential German school of art and design, the aesthetic of which was influenced by and derived from techniques and materials employed especially in industrial fabrication and manufacture-- steel, concrete, chrome, and glass for instance. It was founded in 1919, and closed by the Nazis in 1933, many of its teachers emigrating to the U.S.A. Walter Gropius (German-American, 1883-1969), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (German-American, 1886-1969), Wassily Kandinsky (Russian-German, 1866-1944), Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956), Paul Klee (Swiss-German, 1879-1940), Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (German-American, 1895-1946), Josef Albers (German-American, 1899-1976) and other important artists were teachers there. Even though their styles were often quite varied, the artists of the Bauhaus had such a stong effect on the art and art education that this school is often considered as an art movement in itself.

In 1933, Hitler closed down the Bauhaus. The Bauhaus fused the aesthetics of design, functionalism and the industrial mass production together.

Many of these have become so popular among people desiring to make rubbings of them that casts of the originals have been made to use this way in order to preserve the originals.

The springiness of tubular steel (cantilevered). Projected into space by means of a beam supported only at one end.

A Cantilever Chair. From Avant-garde Design to Industrial Production
(Title of the original: Der Freischwinger, vom Avantgardeentwurf zur Ware)

The subject of this dissertation is the cantilever chair, invented in 1926 by the Dutch functionalist architect Mart Stam (1899 – 1986). Today this chair without rear legs is a common everyday object relegated to the waiting rooms and offices where nobody stops to give it a second thought. Sixty-five years ago, however, the situation was quite different. The chair was a design that aroused astonishment – it seemed as if one was sitting suspended in the air. In very short time inventive manufacturers realised that this was a promising product for their market. Conducted by both the inventors and producers, a long-lasting struggle for patents has begun at that very moment. In particular in Germany this is still continuing until now.

Mart Stam’s project is the most important functionalist contribution to furniture design. Its concept was hardly influenced by traditional furniture but rather stemmed from the renovational aesthetic and social ideas of modern architecture. Its financial success led to a conflict between avant-garde concept on the one hand and on the other hand the pragmatic norms of business life and legal questions of patent rights.

This dissertation starts with an introductory summary of the appearance of tubular steel furniture and in particular the cantilever chair. The second chapter reviews the criticism covering the history of the cantilever chair to be found in literature from 1945 to the present. Chapter three deals with the introduction of tubular steel and the cantilever chair in the market. Above all the position of Stam and Breuer and the manufacturers Anton Lorenz and the Thonet company is looked at more closely. This chapter is closed with an account of the first legal case between Lorenz and Thonet, which ended with the inventor’s patent (rights of original authorship) being awarded to Stam. The fourth chapter is concerned with the tubular steel furniture, which became fashionable at the start of the 30ies and the forthcoming legal cases between the protagonists. Among other things it deals with the law suits on the cantilever chair in Holland and Scandinavia and with Mies van der Rohe’s and Lorenz’ case against the Arnold and Mauser companies in Germany. The last chapter traces the development since WW II; here attention is directed towards the different relationship between Lorenz and Stam and the new attempts to fight for patent rights for the chair in Germany. The study concludes with an analysis of the latest legal case on the rights of production between the Thonet and Tecta companies.

This investigation is based on earlier work at the Delft University of Technology focussed on functionalist metal furniture design in general and in particular on the cantilever chair. The co-operation with the Lorenz Archiv (Vitra Design Museum in Weil am Rhein, Germany) and the Stam Foundation (Deutsches Architektur Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Germany) was of fundamental importance for this study. The availability of formerly inaccessible material has made it possible to finally reconstruct the history of the cantilever chair.

The specific gravity of amorphous carbon is 1.8 to 2.1, of diamond 3.15 to 3.53, and of graphite 1.9 to 2.3. Also, may refer to a sheet of carbon paper, or an image produced by marks made to carbon paper.

In the fiber arts, to card is to comb out fibers with a wire brush (also called a card). Also see bristol board, carding, card stock, foam core or foam board, matboard, and oaktag.

Catalin is no Bakelite.

Although chromium is an element, chrome can be either pure chromium or an alloy of it.

See Art Deco and design. Chromium's elemental symbol is Cr; atomic number 24; atomic weight 51.996; melting point 1,890°C; specific gravity 7.18; valence 2, 3, 6.

An element of art with three properties: (1) hue or tint, the color name, e.g., red, yellow, blue, etc.: (2) intensity, the purity and strength of a colour, e.g., bright red or dull red; and (3) value, the lightness or darkness of a colour.

When the spectrum is organized as a colour wheel, the colors are divided into groups called primary, secondary and intermediate (or tertiary) colors; and also as warm and cool colours.

Colours can be objectively described as saturated, clear, cool, warm, subdued, grayed, tawny, mat, glossy, monochrome, multicolored, particolored, variegated, or polychromed.

Some words used to describe colours are more subjective (subject to personal opinion or taste), such as: exciting, sweet, saccharine, brash, garish, ugly, beautiful, cute, pretty, and sublime.

Sometimes people speak of colours when they are actually refering to pigments, what they are made of (various natural or synthetic substances), their relative permanence, etc.

Photographers measure colour temperature in degrees kelvin (K).

Light colour can be expressed using xy coordination as chromacity coordinates in a standard colorimetric system, or given as the colour temperature TF for white light colours. White light colours can also be classified more generally as warm white (ww), neutral white (nw) and daylight white (dw). The same light colours can have different spectral distribution with simultaneous variance in colour rendition.

2. Skill in evasion or deception; cunning; guile

craft (Middle English) = strength, skill, device

In its first sense, craft refers to the quality of anything that is made. A painting, a building or a meal may be well crafted. Usually excellent craftsmanship is the result of talent, training, and experience.

The pleasure of good craftsmanship is universal, transcending language, culture, and time.

A more specific use of this word refers to objects of a principally utilitarian origin, as in "handicrafts" such as furniture, textiles, metalwork, and so on. This double use of the word can be confusing and requires care: not all crafts are well-crafted, and most fine art relies on its craft. (Read that again until it makes sense.)

A good idea poorly realized because of a lack of craft is like a song poorly sung — a nagging disappointment.

The work of craft is a fine example of the work of life, our universal obligation.
—Carla Needleman

One of the most influential art movements (1907-1914) of the twentieth century, Cubism was developed by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1882-1973) and Georges Braque (French, 1882-1963), who were greatly inspired by African sculpture, by painters Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906) and Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1991), and by the Fauvists.

In Cubism the subject matter is broken up, analyzed, and reassembled in an abstracted form. Picasso and Braque initiated the movement when they followed the advice of Paul Cézanne, who in 1904 said artists should treat nature "in terms of the cylinder, the sphere and the cone."

There were three phases in the development of Cubism: Facet Cubism, Analytic Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism.

The cubists developed the use of collage and several new materials.

Several artists employed the chance results of accident as a means of production, for instance. Literally, the word dada means several things in several languages: it's French for "hobbyhorse" and Slavic for "yes yes". Many artists associated with this movement later became associated with Surrealism.

De Stijl (Dutch for The Style) was the name of a group of artists and architects who gathered around the largely theoretical architect Theo van Doesburg. He founded the group in Leiden in 1917 and published the magazine De Stijl, which ran from 1917 to 1928. 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.

De Stijl was an art movement advocating pure abstraction and simplicity-- form reduced to the rectangle and other geometric shapes, and colour to the primary colours, along with black and white. Piet Mondrian (Dutch, 1872-1944) was the group's leading figure. He published a manifesto titled Neo-Plasticism in 1920. Another member, painter Theo van Doesberg (Dutch, 1883-1931) had started a journal named De Stijl in 1917, which continued publication until 1928, spreading the theories of the group, which also included the painter George Vantongerloo (Belgian,1886-1965), along with the architects J.J.P. Oud (1890-1963) and Gerrit Rietveld (Dutch, 1888-1965). Their work exerted tremendous influence on the Bauhaus and the International Style.

Dutch:
De Stijl is de naam van een tijdschrift, in 1917 door Theo van Doesburg in Leiden opgericht, dat de spreekbuis wilde zijn van een groepering van schilders, architecten, beeldhouwers en schrijvers. Tot de oprichting hebben bijgedragen de schilders Piet Mondriaan en Vilmos Huszar, de architect J.J.P. Oud en de schrijver A. Kok, terwijl reeds in 1917 aan het tijdschrift en het gemeenschappelijk werk deelnamen de schilders Bart van der Leck en Gino Severini, de architecten Jan Wils en Robert van 't Hoff en de beeldhouwer Georges Vantongerloo. Later traden de architect Gerrit Rietveld, de schilders Hans Richter en El Lissitzky, de architecten Cornelis van Eesteren en F. Kiesler, de architecte G. Schröder-Schräder, de schilders César Domela en Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart en de beeldhouwer Constantin Brancusi, terwijl Th. van Doesburg sinds 1920 onder één en later twee pseudoniemen gedichten en proza in het tijdschrift publiceerde.

De beginselen die deze kunstenaars van zo uiteenlopende herkomst en verschillend karakter samenbonden, kunnen in het kort als volgt worden omschreven: de volstrekte abstractie – dwz. de uitbanning van elke referentie tot welk onderdeel van de waarneembare werkelijkheid dan ook – en de beperking van de beeldende taalmiddelen tot de elementaire gegevens – dwz. de rechte lijn en de rechte hoek (dus de verticale en de horizontale lijn), alsmede de drie primaire kleuren – rood, geel en blauw – en de drie primaire niet-kleuren: zwart, grijs en wit. Met deze beperking van hun beeldende vocabulaire en met verwijdering van elke referentie naar de zichtbare werkelijkheid trachtten de kunstenaars een universele ziening van de werkelijkheid uit te beelden, die bij voorbaat elke beperking uitsloot, zowel door het toevallige karakter van het uitgebeelde onderwerp alsook door het willekeurige individuele temperament van de kunstenaar. Hun eerste manifest, verschenen in 1918, formuleert deze gedachte: ‘Er is een oud en een nieuw tijdsbewustzijn. Het oude richt zich op het individueele. Het nieuwe richt zich op het universeele. De strijd van het individueele tegen het universeele openbaart zich, zowel in den wereldkamp als in de kunst van onzen tijd. De oorlog destructiveert de oude wereld met haar inhoud: de individueele overheersing op elk gebied. De nieuwe kunst heeft naar voren gebracht hetgeen het nieuwe tijdsbewustzijn inhoudt: evenwichtige verhouding van het universeele en het individueele’ (De Stijl, II, blz. 2).

In de architectuur werd Ouds project voor een fabriek in Purmerend (1918),het eerste resultaat van de nieuwe stijl in de architectuur, met Rietvelds gelijktijdige leunstoel, spoedig gevolgd door Ouds woningbouw in Rotterdam; na de experimenten in ruimtelijke vormgeving, door Van Doesburg, Van Eesteren en Rietveld gezamenlijk ondernomen (1923), ontstond Rietvelds Schröder-huis in Utrecht, Van Eesterens ontwerp voor een huis aan de rivier en vóór 1928 zowel Van Doesburgs binnenarchitectuur voor restaurant L'Aubette in Straatsburg als Ouds wijk ‘Kiefhoek’ in Rotterdam. Van Eesteren heeft later de beginselen van De Stijl tot basis van het nieuwe stadsontwerp gemaakt in zijn uitbreidingsplan voor Amsterdam-West.

Naast de wijken Kiefhoek en het Witte Dorp, realiseerde Oud in Rotterdam ook Café de Unie aan de Mauritsweg, met de directiekeet voor het Witte Dorp de meest duidelijke Stijl bouwerken van zijn hand in Rotterdam.

decorare (Latin) = to ornament

Often used in the pejorative (negative) sense of unnecessary embellishment, arbitrarily applied to an object without regard to its form.

Decorative additions are frosting on a cake: sometimes used to camouflage mistakes in what lies beneath, and sometimes appropriate additions that elevate what was good to something outstanding.

In Eastern aesthetics, decoration is a testament of devotion. Hindu temples and Muslim mosques, for instance, are dazzling monuments to decoration. In their approach, it would be impossible to have too much decoration, just as it would be impossible to have too much devotion to god.

God lives in the details.
—Mies van der Rohe.