DOESBURG, THEO VAN

(pseudonym ofChristian Emil Marie Kupper)

(1883–1931)

Painter and architect. Van Does burg founded the periodicalDe Stijl(1917–1931), in which he prop agated his principles of neo-Plasticist art. Like his friend Piet Mon drian, he composed his paintings on geometrical and linear principles, but after 1924 added the diagonal (“elementarism”). Dur ing these years, van Doesburg advocated Dadaism in Holland, pub lishing under the pseudonym of I. K. Bonset. Together with Hans Arp (1887–1966), he decorated the restaurant l’Aubette in Strasbourg (1926–1928, destroyed 1938). The architect Jan Wils (1891–1972) was also involved in De Stijl; he designed the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium for the 1928 Games, for which he invented the first Olympic flame.