Life and career
Origins and training
Born in Utrecht, van Doesburg worked as a painter, poet and critic. In 1917 he helped establish De Stijl and its journal with artists and architects including Piet Mondrian.
Places, turning points and artistic change
Travelling, publishing and architectural collaboration took his ideas beyond painting. Later diagonal compositions challenged the stricter horizontal–vertical approach associated with Mondrian.
Beyond the studio
He helped organise an international network through magazines, lectures and exhibitions. Architecture projects with Cornelis van Eesteren and the Aubette interior were collaborative works, not solitary painting commissions.
Works across a career
Selected examples, not a complete catalogue. Read date ranges and attributions before inferring a career sequence.
Reading the selected works together
From dance rhythm to the counter-composition and architectural project, geometry changes from an image into a possible environment.
- 01
June 1918
June 1918
Rhythm of a Russian Dance
- Material / technique
- Oil on canvas
- Attribution / role
- Collection / source
- The Museum of Modern Art
Artist-wide context
He connected painters, designers and architects through the journal and later pushed the use of diagonal lines.
- 02
1923
1923
Contra-Construction Project (Axonometric)
- Material / technique
- Architectural drawing
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- MoMA
Made with Cornelis van Eesteren; not a drawing of a completed building.
- 03
1925–26
1925–26
Counter-Composition XIII
- Material / technique
- Oil on canvas
- Attribution / role
- See the museum attribution
- Collection / source
- Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Diagonal organisation makes the balance feel less fixed.
Materials, marks and colour
Media and surface
Paint, diagrams and interior colour schemes share a geometric vocabulary.
Marks and structure
Rectangles can balance asymmetrically; diagonals later increase the sense of movement.
Palette and light
Limited colours make differences of direction and proportion especially clear.