CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Theo van Doesburg

Exhibition: 12 March - 11 June 2000

From the museum website, 25 February 2009

Theo van Doesburg: painter, poet , architect, 20th-century avant-gardist simultaneously in Otterlo and Utrecht

On March 12 2000 a major retrospective devoted to Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) will open in Utrecht’s Centraal Museum, Utrecht, and the Kröller-Müller Museum at Otterlo. The Centraal Museum presents Van Doesburg’s early work up to 1922. It was during this period that he discovered abstract art, founded De Stijl magazine and endeavoured to implement his ideas and points of departure at the Bauhaus. On show in the Kröller-Müller Museum is his production from 1923 to 1931, works from his Dada and Paris period, in which architecture came to occupy an increasingly important place. Van Doesburg was active in the field of fine art, architecture and literature. He was also an important theorist.

Van Doesburg developed both the practical and theoretical foundations of abstract art and ideas about a synthesis of art and life in the modern age. His versatile talents made him one of the greatest avant-garde artists of the 20th century. An oeuvre catalogue published jointly by the Centraal Museum and the Kröller-Müller Museum documents and describes his complete works. The catalogue represents the fruits of three years of preparation.

A programme of lectures will be held during the exhibition period. Experts in Utrecht and Otterlo will draw attention to various aspects of Van Doesburg’s work and examine Van Doesburg, the man and his art, in the avant-garde context.

Under the title ‘Doesburg Collection’ the Do Foundation has devised a series of concerts around the work of Theo and Nelly van Doesburg. In the project, which reflects Van Doesburg’s quest for a universal view of art and life, various musical disciplines react to Van Doesburg’s work. Key works by important contemporaries are on display in both exhibitions.

The exhibition, catalogue and programme of lectures and concerts convey a rich and varied impression of an artist with many talents.

Publication

Theo van Doesburg: oeuvrecatalogus
Els Hoek, Marleen Blokhuis, Meta Knol and Roman Koot
Monograph and catalogue raisonné, gave occasion to two exhibitions held in 2000 in Utrecht (Centraal Museum and Otterlo (Kröller-Müller Museum)
840 pp.
Utrecht (Centraal Museum), Otterlo (Kröller-Müller Museum) and Bussum (THOTH) 2002
ISBN 90-6868-255-5 (hardbound)

Related event

Exhib. Theo van Doesburgh, Otterlo (Kröller-Müller Museum)