| Title |
A Study on the Formal Characteristics of Theo van Doesburg's Counter-construction - Focus on the House Projects in 1923 De Stijl Exhibition - |
| Keywords |
De Stijl ; Theo van Doesburg ; Counter-construction ; Space-time ; Dialectic progress |
| Abstract |
Dutch artist, Theo van Doesburg had shown short but strong experimental aesthetics in his works through De Stijl movement. He played a leading role for editing De Stijl magazine and performed various formative works such as painting, sculpture, and architecture. In 1923 he opened the first De Stijl exhibition cooperated with Cornelis van Eesteren. In this architecture exhibition he showed rich formal spirits of counter-construction in his major design works, that is Maison Particuliere and Maison D'artiste among three houses projects. Formal characteristics of counter-construction can be summed up under two categories, time and space. Analytical results are as follows; First, the characteristics of counter-construction related to time category include two types of two mode. One is linear aspect of time based on the viewer's movement. The other aspect is simultaneity caused by synoptical effect. These could be proved by the analysis of arrangement of color planes. Secondly, the spatial aspects of counter-construction are produced through two different ways of formal strategies. Van Doesburg arranged cubes in very irregular pattern. This treatment induces ambiguous void and creates feeling of subject's space. And, through deleting, shifting, and extending he could make dynamic spatial effect by interpenetration between in and out. This fluid space thus introduces movements of one's gaze and circulation. He denied traditional classical values which had ruled the western aesthetical discipline for centuries and believed that mankind can reach the realm of universal equilibrium by contrast and tension created by counter-construction. In this vein Theo van Doesburg was an avant-garde artist of Hegelian thoughts who adopted the dialectical method without following the formal characteristics from ancestors. |