FRIEZE MASTERS: De Sijl reSTRUCTUREd

In 2017 the artworld celebrates the centennial of the founding of De Stijl. De Stijl is without doubt the most important Dutch contribution to the international history of twentieth century art. Founded in the Netherlands in 1917, by Mondrian, Van Doesburg and Van der Leck amongst others, the movement quickly acquired an international quality after the end of World War I. Back in Paris Mondrian and Van Doesburg would further disseminate their ideas of ‘The New Plastic in Painting’ and they would be adopted by others.

In 1958 the journal STRUCTURE was founded by Dutch artist Joost Baljeu. Based on the principles and ideas of De Stijl and Bauhaus, a group of artists including Joost Baljeu, Charles Bierderman, Carlos Cairoli, Ad Dekkers, Jean Gorin, Anthony Hill, Carel Visser and Gilian Wise found through the journal STRUCTURE common ground in the theories and principles of their predecessors a few decades earlier. In STRUCTURE an intellectual platform was created where discussions were held and theories explored on abstraction and nature, art and science, the painting and the relief, architecture and sculpture.

The Mayor Gallery as a British gallery and BorzoGallery as a Dutch gallery have joined forces in collecting work by this international group of artists with roots in the USA, France, Argentina and – of course – the United Kingdom and The Netherlands. It is the first time since the 1962 exhibition ‘Experiment in Constructie’ in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, that a representational and coherent presentation of artists around STRUCTURE is being presented. 

We are very grateful to Jonneke Jobse, author of De Stijl Continued, The Journal Structure (1958-1964) – An Artists’ Debate, in which she has in depth studied this remarkable international cooperation of artists. We deeply thank Domitille d’Orgeval for her very clear introduction to this exhibition and catalogue.

James Mayor, The Mayor Gallery

Paul van Rosmalen, BorzoGallery