Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde

4 Feb-16 May 2010

Overview

'Constructing a New World'. Tate Modern presents the first major exhibition in the UK devoted to the Dutch artist and lynchpin of the European avant-garde, Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931). A radical and multidisciplinary artist (painter, architect, designer, poet, art critic and publisher), van Doesburg played a pivotal role as a conduit for the international exchange of information and ideas. He founded the magazine and movement De Stijl, advocated Dadaist concepts under the pseudonym IK Bonset, taught a De Stijl course in Weimar in opposition to the Bauhaus and forged links with Constructivist groups. Controversial and opinionated, van Doesburg formed relationships with the most influential artists of mid-century Modernism. There will be over 300 works by 80 different artists on display including works by Alexander Archipenko, Raoul Hausmann, El Lissitzky, László Moholy-Nagy, Hans Richter, Gerrit Rietveld, Sophie Taeuber and Piet Mondrian.