De Stijl (Cover in the Box)

De Stijl - Magazine cover from 1917 (by Theo van Doesburg)

What do we have before us here?

All right, a friend of mine's first reaction was this question.

Is it art or can it go away? My answer:

You go away. (Not seriously) - For me it's art

You can see the very first cover page of the magazine

De Stijl: monthly magazine for modern visual arts [and culture] by the Dutch painter, designer, writer and critic Theo van Doesburg from 1917.

De Stijl was a Dutch art movement founded by T. v. Doesburg 1917.

The main members of the group were the painters

Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszár and Bart van der Leck as well as the architects Gerrit Rietveld, Robert van 't Hoff and J. J. P. Oud.

The magazine was printed monthly from 1917 (with small interruptions) until 1931.

Even though the magazine never sold more than 300 copies, it still had a strong following Influence to this day, on art and architecture in the Netherlands and abroad. Mies von der Rohe was also a friend of the De Stijl movement, which was also reflected in his architecture.

So here you see a small work of art from the year the Dutch De Stijls was founded.

I also built a box in the form of a printing plate that shows the image mirrored in an identical size.

The box reflects the look of the De Stijls. The colors yellow, red and blue and the anti-colors white, gray and black

Why did I add this? The De Stijl can be found very often in industrial design. So it fits together very well here. I built the printing plate in mashine-looking gray tones. Dark, metall-look tiles form the printing areas.

The Lego studs on the floor are intentionally free. They enhance the industrial look of the printing plate. If you place the picture on the box as a lid, the print surfaces and the image lie perfectly on top of each other. As if you were just printing it.

Why did I build it?

Lego now reflects more than just play. Play, art, architecture, painting and industry inspire us AFOLS to almost everything build what is possible. Here both together reflect a very beautiful and interesting model of industry and art.

Why might Lego build it?

A piece of contemporary Dutch history would be resurrected in Lego bricks. And contemporary history is worth more than a Lego brick.

De Stijl on the web (English): https://monoskop.org/De_Stijl

Theo van Doesburg on the web (English): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_van_Doesburg

Data about the model

Parts: 2 (printing plate and image)

Pieces: 1512

Size in studs: 50x42x4

Grams: 2242

Contemporary history can be so beautiful