Figures of the Dance in De Stijl

Abstract

An examination of dancing figures, both actual and artistic, in the work of Mondrian and, in particular, Van Doesburg and Huszar reveals sources in popular art forms, including the Charleston, Javanese dance, and shadow theater, thus indicating that notions of primitivism played an important and heretofore unrecognized role in De Stijl. This primitive element was developed in close conjunction with the modernity suggested by ordered formal systems and by the machine. As a result, De Stijl may be seen as having shared characteristics of both Dada and Constructivism, which are often and misleadingly understood as contradictory modes of expression.