Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) is perhaps best known as a prime mover in 'De Stijl', the Dutch artistic movement that demanded an elemental, abstract vocabulary in both painting and architecture.
This study, accompanying a major touring exhibition, reveals for the first time the true extent of his involvement with Dada and Constructivist artists' groups spread across the whole of Europe,as far as Russia and beyond, and the breadth of his creative practice in fields as diverse as film, typography, graphic design and music.
A man of multiple talents and identities, he was inspired by the catastrophe of the First World War to attempt nothing less than the reshaping of culture in its entirety and the construction of a new world order.