Modernism & Design Flashcards
De Stijl
In general, De Stijl proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting, by using only straight horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms. Furthermore, their formal vocabulary was limited to the primary colours, red, yellow, and blue, and the three primary values, black, white, and grey. The works avoided symmetry and attained aesthetic balance by the use of opposition. This element of the movement embodies the second meaning of stijl: “a post, jamb or support”; this is best exemplified by the construction of crossing joints, most commonly seen in carpentry.
Constructivism
A style or movement in which assorted mechanical objects are combined into abstract mobile structural forms.
The Bauhaus
A school of design established by Walter Gropius in Weimar in 1919, known for its designs of objects based on functionalism and simplicity.
International Style
A functional style of 20th-century architecture, so called because it crossed national and cultural barriers. It is characterized by the use of steel and reinforced concrete, wide windows, uninterrupted interior spaces, simple lines, and strict geometric forms
San Serif Typography
Typography lacking accents
Proun
Begun in 1919, his series of abstract geometric paintings entitled Proun (an acronym for “project for the affirmation of the new” ), as well as his many prints, were key works in Russia’s suprematist movement (see suprematism ).
Piet Mondrian • Composition with Yellow, Red and Blue (1927)
Gerrit Rietveld • Schröder House, Utrecht, The Netherlands (1925)
Gerrit Rietveld • Red & Blue Chair (1925)
Walter Gropius • Bauhaus Building, Dessau, Germany, (1925-26)
Marianne Brandt • Coffee and Tea service (1924)
l Lissitzky • Proun Space 1923
