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 join me for "the task".