OK, before you can start churning out neoplastic masterpieces, you have to immerse yourself in the philosophy and mindset of the movement and its creators. And we’ll do that by taking a jaunt about the web, consuming content and answering a few questions along the way.

By the time your transformation into a Neoplasticist is complete, you’ll have taxed your brain in six different ways that Mr. Bloom would fully approve of. Now relax, ‘ole TvD will be at your side as your spiritual guide on this webquest (best I can do as I have long since departed the physical plane).

NEOPLASTICISM 101

Now on to a few introductory thoughts about Neoplasticism. First, here’s the scoop on the name. Short story, I promise. In 1917, Mondrian, myself and several other artistic types forged a new alliance and published a journal called “De Stijl” which is Dutch for “the style” (pretty bold, right?).

We published our manifesto shortly after, calling for the abolition of individualist expression in art and architecture and replacing it with a new art form built upon spiritual order, harmony and universality. You can check out the manifesto below (though it’s best appreciated in its original Dutch translation).

Mondrian then fleshed out the artistic expressions of De Stijl in a series of articles entitled “Neo-plasticism in Pictorial Art”. FYI, a century ago “plastic art” was another term for the visual arts (as opposed to music or writing). Neoplasticism has nothing to do with plastics. Or the movie The Graduate. (Yes, we’ve got Netflix up here).

Over time, De Stijl and Neoplasticism came to be used interchangeably, though the second is really a subset of the first. There's a reason the White Stripes called their second album De Stijl and not Neoplasticism. I'm just saying. Yes, Mondrian was the poster boy for Neoplasticism, but I was the organizing and promoting force of De Stijl. That’s why when I went kaput in 1931, alas so did the journal and the movement.

But fifteen years is a pretty good run, especially when you figure movements like Rayonism and Vorticism (good scrabble word, eh?), petered out after a year or two.

Why were we so down on individualism? What were our defining stylistic tenets? Can you paint me an example? Uh, huh. Nice try. That’s your job, pal. Start by reading the manifesto. Then venture further below to "the task".

Truth be told, it’s not really one task. It’s a series of tasks. I guess the webquest creators thought that might sound a little too imposing. But if I can create a movement, you can complete a webquest.

At the end of this lesson you are going to create your own Neoplasticism membership/business card that is consistent with our artistic principles and beliefs and features a unique Mondrianesque piece of digital art that you will create. But to earn the right to carry that card, you’re going have to prove that you’re one of us along the way by downing some content and answering some questions.

You’ll get the specifics of where to go and what to do in the next section. But here’s the overview of the tasks...

Identify the key historical event that shaped the De Stijl/Neoplasticist philosophy

Explain how De Stijl was a reaction to that key historical event

Summarize the key artistic tenets of Neoplasticism after boning up on the topic

Differentiate De Stijl/Neoplasticism works from previous/following artistic movements – using examples drawn from 3 different artists: Mondrian, van der Leck, and moi (that’s me, not some obscure French artist).

Use those principles to Create the aforementioned Neoplastic membership card and a digital Mondrianesque masterpiece.

Relax. It's not like we're asking you to design an entire house. Besides Rietveld already did that. Check it out below. You can even go on a tour by clicking on the photo, though you might appreciate it more after you are a little more versed in the movement.

Then join me below for "the process", where your Neoplastic edification will commence.

Pre-step: Go back and read the manifesto if you haven’t. I spent a lot of time crafting that.

Step 1: Identify and learn about the key historical event shaping De Stijl philosophy

Step 2: Explain how our manifesto was a reaction to that key historical event

To Do: Answer quiz question 1 via link. Leave quiz window open for future questions.

Step 3: Learn about and summarize our key artistic tenets.

To Do: View content and then answer quiz questions 2 & 3.

Start with this video. Not crazy about how the guy labels the movement “weird” but otherwise it's a solid introduction.

Then check out the website entry on De Stijl from theartstory.org. Explore their links too.

De Stijl was heady stuff. So is this next article. Note sweet Neoplastic page design. Note not so sweet use of mass quantities of small knockout type. Oi.

And as quick recap, check out this cartoon:

Step 4: Differentiate Neoplastic works from previous/following artistic movements.

We'll use examples drawn from 3 different artists: Mondrian, van der Leck, and moi (that’s me, not some obscure French artist). We'll start with me (see earlier public domain comment) and then do the others using museum image links.

To Do: Compare identified Neoplastic works and then answer questions 4 through 9 in the webquest quiz regarding their similarities and dissimilarities.

Van Doesburg examples (Questions 4 & 5)

versus

versus

Mondrian examples (Questions 6 & 7)

versus

versus

van der Leck examples (Questions 8 & 9)

versus

versus

Step 5A: Create a Mondrian inspired digital painting

To do: You'll be using the Mondrimat app, developed by Stephen Linhart. Play with the controls for a bit to get the knack and then create your masterpiece. Remember your principles. You won't be able to save it, so take a good screenshot.

Step 5B: Create your membership card

Yea, I know you thought you were done. But Neoplasticism was more than painting. It was a comprehensive aesthetic and that includes type and logo design.

To do: Create a 2" by 3.5" membership card in any basic drawing program. Use Google Docs if you don’t have one. Include your name and your title (Neoplasticist). Work your Mondrimat image into the design.

Identify a font that adheres to Neoplasticism principles (as best you can find). If you are working in an offline program you can download my namesake font. But there are others that will fit the bill. The "Geo" fonts in Google Docs are pretty close.

When you are finished e-mail your digital painting and Neoplasticism membership card as two separate files to the following addresses via the DropEvent service. In the subject line put your last name and artifact label (e.g., Pennella Digital Painting). Upload the painting at a medium size. You can search the event number later on to view your fellow webquesters' work.

The instructor's membership card can be seen below. Not bad for a novice. But feel free to school him with your creation.

Oh, the hypocrisy, I hear some of you cry. All this talk about eliminating individualism, yet now we are to be evaluated? Does not that inevitably elevate one above another? And does not that send us sliding down the same slippery slope towards despotism that you so passionately railed against?!

First of all, nice manifesto playback. But relax, this evaluation is not a beauty contest. This is about whether you understand and are accurately representing the artistic and spiritual principles of our movement. Do that and you'll be fine.

Basically the quiz questions are worth 50% and the design activity is worth 50%. You can check out the rubric with the link below.

Individualism versus Non-conformity

As long as we're on the subject of accused hypocrisy, I want your take on one final matter. Our movement was about eliminating the individualistic impulse of the artist in pursuit of something more universal. Yet in doing so, our movement created very distinctive, "individualized" art. That Rietveld house sticks out like a sore thumb in Utrecht. Some see that as a contradiction. What do you think?

To do: Answer question 10 in the webquest quiz. There's no right or wrong answer.

After you've done that. Check out this cool monogram I designed for my fellow De Stijlist and architect Jacobus Johannes Pieter Oud (talk about a name begging for a monogram!), and then join me below for some closing thoughts

Congratulations, you are officially one of us. No, not dead. A Neoplasticist.

OK, one last confession. I'm not really a Neoplasticist anymore. Well, I was, but then in the '20s, I started to develop an appreciation for the diagonal and had some cool new thoughts about time and space (why limit yourself to just three dimensions?). I called this movement Elementarism, still under the De Stijl banner.

If you're interested, check out the link below.

Mondrian wasn't really down with these new ideas and so he bolted from De Stijl. Piet was always a bit of a square (ha, ha). But we made up a few years later during a chance meeting in a Parisian cafe, so everything is cool up here.

Oh, yeah, and then there was this Abstraction-Création association that I helped star-- ahh, we'll save that for another webquest. This is Theo von Doesburg officially signing off.

PS: Almost forgot. Below is the reconstruction of the cinema/dance hall that I designed in Strasbourg. It bombed at the time, but came to be appreciate over time.

So there's your final lesson. Don't expect to be popular. Prepare for the "weird" labels. Stick to your guns.

Unless, of course, you decide that's too limiting. Then just create something new. I have some great manifesto templates. Additional consulting is available on a hourly basis.

PPS: You might want to get your neoplastic membership card plasticized. Oud has ruined about six of them in the washer/dryer already. Classic Oud.