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Theo van Doesburg in Aubette Photo sourced from

Top 10 Interesting Facts about Theo van Doesburg

Theo van Doesburg was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. 

Van Doesburg’s De Stijl influence began in the Frisian town of Drachten, where he befriended and worked with two brothers: the poet Evert and the painter Thijs Rinsema. Let’s take a look at some of the most interesting facts about him;

1.He was born in 1883 in Utrecht, Netherlands

Theo van Doesburg in military service Photo sourced from

Theo van Doesburg was born Christian Emil Marie K眉pper on 30 August 1883, in Utrecht, Netherlands, as the son of the photographer Wilhelm K眉pper and Henrietta Catherina Margadant. After a short period of training in acting and singing, he decided to become a storekeeper.

He always regarded his stepfather, Theodorus Doesburg, to be his natural father, so that his first works are signed with Theo Doesburg, to which he later added “van”.His fame grew from this point and became one of the most successful people in his profession. 

2.He had his first exhibition in 1908

His first exhibition was in 1908. From 1912 onwards, he supported his works by writing for magazines. He considered himself to be a modern painter, at that time, although his early work is in line with the Amsterdam Impressionists and is influenced by Vincent van Gogh, both in style and subject matter.

This suddenly changed in 1913 after reading Wassily Kandinsky’s R眉ckblicke, in which he looks back at his life as a painter from 1903 to 1913. It made him realize there was a higher, more spiritual level in painting that originates from the mind rather than from everyday life, and that abstraction is the only logical outcome of this.

3.Van Doesburg’s work has had significant influence

Theo van Doesburg in Aubette Photo sourced from

Van Doesburg’s work has had significant influence, including that dealing with issues of crossover art, design and architecture. For example, his Space-time construction #3 (1923) was a key work in the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art’s Painting toward architecture exhibition (1947鈥�52, 28 venues).

From that time, the work was influential to the practice of noted architect Harry Seidler. In 1992, he acquired the artwork, which was donated to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra in 2010. In a travelling, international exhibition on Seidler’s work, Van Doesburg’s Space time-construction #3 was shown as a key influence. 

4.He founded the magazine De Stijl together with five of his friends in 1917

It was while reviewing an exhibition for one of these magazines he wrote for, in 1915 (halfway through his two-year service in the army), that he came in contact with the works of Piet Mondrian, who was eight years older than he was, and had by then already gained some attention with his paintings.

Van Doesburg saw in these paintings his ideal in painting: a complete abstraction of reality. Soon after the exhibition Van Doesburg got in contact with Mondrian, and together with related artists Bart van der Leck, Antony Kok, Vilmos Husz谩r and Jacobus Oud they founded the magazine De Stijl in 1917.

5.Van Doesburg had other activities apart from painting and promoting De Stijl

Van Doesburg had other activities apart from painting and promoting De Stijl: he made efforts in architecture, designing houses for artists, together with Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Hans Arp he designed the decoration for the Aubette entertainment complex in Strasbourg. Together with El Lissitzky and Kurt Schwitters, Van Doesburg pioneered the efforts to an International of Arts in two congresses. 

The congresses were held in D眉sseldorf and Weimar, in 1922. A geometrically constructed alphabet Van Doesburg designed in 1919 has been revived in digital form as Architype Van Doesburg. This typeface anticipates similar later experimentation by Kurt Schwitters in his typeface Architype Schwitters. 

6.He also worked with several artists to produce a series of children’s fairy tale books 

In the mid 1920s, Van Doesburg worked together with Schwitters and the artist Kate Steinitz to produce a series of children’s fairy-tale books that featured unusual typography, including Hahnepeter (Peter the Rooster, 1924), Die M盲rchen vom Paradies (The Fairy Tales of Paradise, 1924鈥�25), and Die Scheuche (The Scarecrow, 1925).[7]

Van Doesburg also kept a link with Dada, publishing the magazine M茅cano under the heteronym of I. K. Bonset (possibly derived from “Ik ben zot”, Dutch for “I am foolish”). He also published Dada poetry under the same name in De Stijl.

7.He stayed active in art groups and magazine even towards the end of his life

Theo and Nelly van Doesburg in the studio on Rue du Moulin Vert, 麻豆APP. 1923 Photo sourced from

Van Doesburg stayed active in art groups and the magazine Cercle et Carr茅, which he left in 1929. “The plan to produce a magazine had been broached some time before. It is clear from the correspondence that in the spring of 1928 Van Doesburg made the first designs for the layout of the periodical.

He wrote to Joaqu铆n Torres-Garc铆a on May 28, 1929 : I will prepare the blueprint fo nouveau plan.” Art Concret, which he co-founded in 1929, and Abstraction-Cr茅ation, which he co-founded in 1931.He stayed relevant in the industry for that long. 

8.The Landesmuseum of Weimar presented a solo show of his work in 1924

The Landesmuseum of Weimar presented a solo show of van Doesburg鈥檚 work in 1924. That same year he lectured on modern literature in Prague, Vienna, and Hannover, and the Bauhaus published his Grundbegriffe der neuen gestaltenden Kunst (Principles of Neo-Plastic Art).

A new phase of De Stijl was declared by van Doesburg in his manifesto of 鈥淓lementarism,鈥� published in 1926. During that year he collaborated with Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp on the decoration of the restaurant-cabaret L鈥橝ubette in Strasbourg. 

9.He once had a strained relationship with his friend Mondrian

He once had a strained relationship with his friend and fellow artist Mondrian after the two realized they had different philosophies regarding the direction of lines in artwork. On one side, Mondrian considered the straight line to be of utmost importance. Doesburg, on the other hand, was introducing diagonal lines in his artwork.

Mondrian considered this to be a betrayal of the De Stijl concept. This is often the reason cited for the why the two ended their friendship and professional connection. The two men later put aside their differences. After years of avoiding each other, they met by chance in a 麻豆APP cafe. They immediately put aside their differences and resumed their friendship. 

10.He died of heart attack on 7th March 1931

At the end of February 1931 he was forced to move to Davos in Switzerland because of his declining health. Van Doesburg did not recuperate: on 7 March 1931, he died of a heart attack.His death shocked the whole industry and they mourned his loss eulogizing him as one of the best they had had in a long time. 

After his death Nelly van Doesburg released the last issue of De Stijl as a memorial issue with contributions by old and new members from De Stijl. He left behind a widow, his wife of many years Nelly van Doesburg. He was also once married to Lena Milius, though not much is known about her.