100 Years After De Stijl in Leiden

Stuart Forster visits 100 Years After De Stijl in Leiden, an art exhibition to celebrate a century since the foundation of the De Stijl art and design movement.

Leiden, the university city in the Netherlands, lays claim to being the birthplace of De Stijl. An open-air art exhibition, 100 Years After De Stijl, is being held in the courtyard of the city’s St Peter’s Church to mark a century since the beginning of the influential art and design movement.

Theo van Doesburg published the first edition of the magazine, De Stijl, which gave its name to the movement, in Leiden during 1917. Haarlemerstraat 73a remained the magazine’s administrative headquarters until 1921.

100 Years After De Stijl

100 Years After De Stijl features works by 20 international artists. The exhibition is curated by Guido Winkler and Iemke van Dijk. In common with De Stijl, the works featured are abstract.

Piet Mondrian was a founding member and one of the best-known proponents of De Stijl’s ideals. He moved to New York City in 1940. Mondrian is buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery. Victory Boogie Woogie, the unfinished painting regarded as his masterpiece, is now displayed at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag in The Hague.

In common with Mondrian, Rob de Oude, who is participating in 100 Years After De Stijl with the work Mural #11 (Seesaw), moved from the Netherlands to New York.

“The grid of New York, the way that is set up, has a lot to do with structure and repetition — elements that are used in De Stijl,” says De Oude.

From New York to Leiden

“I run a gallery space in Brooklyn and I’ve shown a multitude of the artists displayed here…There’s an overlap of networks and relationships that cross continents and are operating in unison in some ways,” he adds.

“This particular work is based on a mural I did in France,” says De Oude of Mural #11 (Seesaw).

“The design itself is a tessellation of one particular element that I have included in mirror-form or straight-on execution nine times. So there’s kind of a grid in there, which has a relationship to De Stijl, or course, so is the reasoning for my participation in this exhibition.”

inspired by Theo Van Doesburg

“I use a lot of grids in my work. Grids can be straight-on or dynamic, the way Van Doesburg used them in his work…Basically, there’s a top row that has the same direction, the middle row takes the opposite direction and the same direction as the top row. This creates a zig-zag, dynamic, optical illusion,” adds De Oude.

“I grew up here in the Netherlands, so De Stijl is kind of in my genes. I grew up playing on what you can consider outdoor sculptures that were playgrounds with that kind of design influence,” says the artist.

Artist Marije Vermeulen

Marije Vermeulen is another of the artists participating in 100 Years After De Stijl.

“I always start with the measurements of the space that is available. This space is three metres and 33 centimetres. The first thing that I think when I see such a number is that it perfectly divides in three,” says Vermeulen.

“The outline shape you see is inspired by architecture. Look around and you’ll see the simplest decoration in architecture is often just an outline around a window or a door. These simple shapes, they accentuate the door or window. I like the simple idea that when you put an outline around something you accentuate the shape of it,” she explains.

“In this case, I made three rectangles. I wanted to play with it. The secondary decoration is in the corners. It’s based on simple, conceptual ideas. It is very important that it is neat and colourful. It’s important that there are some rules in there but I don’t want to be heavily under dogmas. It has to be cheerful and playful, that’s important to my work,” she adds with a laugh.

This outdoor exhibition is part of the programme of events being held across the Netherlands during 2017 as part of Mondrian and De Stijl, a celebration of the influence of the De Stijl art and design movement.

100 Years After De Stijl was displayed at Leiden’s Pieterskerkhof until 27 August 2017.

Artist Marije Vermeulen at the 100 Years After De Stijl exhibition in Leiden, the Netherlands.
Marije Vermeulen at the 100 Years After De Stijl exhibition in Leiden.

Further information

Find out more about Leiden’s attractions on the Visit Leiden and Netherlands websites.

Stuart Forster, the author of this post, was named Travel Writer of the Decade at the Netherlands Press Awards of 2020. He writes frequently about the Netherlands.

Thanks for visiting Go Eat Do and reading this post on 100 Years After De Stijl in Leiden. If you’re planning a trip to the Netherlands you may find it useful to read this post on an A to Z of reasons to visit the Netherlands.

The photos illustrating this post are by Why Eye Photography.

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4 Comments

  • Fiona

    June 30, 2017 at 16:53 Reply

    I love modern and contemporary art … I’ll have to check this out soon!

    • Stuart Forster

      July 1, 2017 at 07:25 Reply

      Well worth it. Try to combine a visit with a trip to the Gemeentemuseum is The Hague, which is hosting an exhibition about Piet Mondrian during the summer of 2017.

  • Paula Gray

    July 2, 2017 at 22:18 Reply

    We visited over the weekend. Thank you for the heads up about the exhibition. It is worth seeing. I recommend a boat tour of Leiden while visiting this pretty city.

    • Stuart Forster

      July 3, 2017 at 07:45 Reply

      Thank you. I agree. On a fine day a boat tour of the city’s canals is a great way of seeing Leiden.

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