What art movement is characterized by geometric abstraction and primary colors? De Stijl is the answer. Founded in the Netherlands in 1917, De Stijl sought a universal visual language built from horizontal and vertical lines, rectangles, and a restricted palette of red, yellow, blue, black, white, and gray.
The movement was closely associated with painter Piet Mondrian, whose carefully balanced grids became its best-known expression. Theo van Doesburg founded and edited the journal De Stijl, which spread the movement’s ideas among painters, architects, and designers. Gerrit Rietveld extended the principles into three-dimensional design through works such as the Red and Blue Chair and the Rietveld Schröder House.
A common mix-up is confusing De Stijl with Suprematism or Constructivism. All three explored abstraction and geometry, but De Stijl emphasized an orderly vocabulary of primary colors and perpendicular structure. Its influence reached the Bauhaus, International Style architecture, furniture, interiors, and modern graphic design.