Table Of ContentNIJHOFF, VAN OSTAIJEN, "DE STIJL"
The Three Graces
Th. van Doesburg
Nijhoff, Van Ostaijen, "De Stijl"
MODERNISM IN THE NETHERLANDS
AND BELGIUM IN THE FIRST QUARTER
OF THE 20th CENTURY
SIX ESSAYS
edited and introduced by
FRANCIS BULHOF
MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1976
© 1976 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
All rights reserved, including the rights to translate or to
reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
ISBN-13: 978-90-247-1857-3 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-1397-0
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-1397-0
This volume contains six essays which were read at a symposium on "Modern
ism in the Low Countries 1915-1930," held at Austin, Texas, October 15-17,
1973, and co-ordinated for the Department of Germanic Languages, The Uni
versity of Texas at Austin, by Edgar Polome and Francis Bulhof.
In conjunction with the symposium the University of Texas Art Museum
arranged an exhibit, "The Non-Objective World 1914-1955," while films on
Mondrian and Van Ostaijen were also shown as part of the program.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Governments of Belgium
and The Netherlands, of the NY Philips Gloeilampenfabrieken, and of The
College of Humanities, The University of Texas at Austin. We also wish to
thank Ms. Vicki Roberts for her editorial and clerical assistance with the
preparation of this volume.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of plates IX
FRANCIS BULHOF, Introduction 1
JAN BRANDT CORSTIUS, The International Context of Dutch Literary
Modernism 1915-1930 8
Discussion 20
A. VAN ELSLANDER, Flemish Literature in the First Decades of the
Twentieth Century 23
PAUL HADERMANN, Paul van Ostaijen and Der Sturm 37
Discussion 55
EGBERT KruSPYN, Literature and De StyT 58
ROBERT P. WELSH, Theo van Doesburg and Geometric Abstraction 76
A. L. SOTEMANN, "Non-spectacular" Modernism: Martinus Nijhoff's
Poetry in its European Context 95
Panel Discussion 117
Bibliography 126
Index 132
LIST OF PLATES
1. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Cosmic Sun, 1915, pastel/paper, 9t" x 12r'. (J.P. Smid,
Amsterdam).
2. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Blushing Girl with Buttercups, c. 1915 (dated 1914), oil/
canvas, 3ot" x 30-!-". (Yale University Art Gallery; Lent by Mr. & Mrs. William
N. Copley).
3. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Heroic Movement, 1916, oil/canvas, 47t" x 31t". (Estate
of Mrs. Nelly van Doesburg).
4. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Triangular Composition: Still Life Motif, 1916, oil/canvas,
26-!-" x 25t". (Kroller-MUller State Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands).
5. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Tree, 1916, oil/papered pulpboard, 26" x 22". (Portland
Art Museum, Oregon).
6. BARTVANDERLECK, Dock Labor, 1916, oil/canvas, 35" x 94-!-,'. (Kroller-MUller
State Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands).
7. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Card Players, 1916-1917, oil/canvas, 46t" x 58t". (Estate
of Mrs. Nelly van Doesburg).
8. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Abstract Trans/ormation 0/ the Card Players, 1917, oil/
canvas, 45t" x 41!,'. (Municipal Museum, The Hague).
9. BART VAN DER LECK, Composition No.5: Donkey Riders, late 1916?, oil/canvas,
23" x 57i". (Richard Feigan Gallery, New York & Chicago).
10. VILMOS HUSZAR, Composition II: The Skaters, February, 1917, oil/canvas,
29-!-" x 321-". (Municipal Museum, The Hague).
11. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Rhythms 0/ a Russian Dance, c. 1918, oil/canvas, 531-" x
24t". (The Museum of Modern Art, New York).
12. TH. VAN DOESBURG, The Three Graces, 1917, oil/canvas, 33-!-" x 331-". (Wash
ington University Art Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri). (Also appears in color as
the Frontispiece.)
13. TH. VAN DOESBURG, The Cow, 1917, oil/canvas, 14t" x 25". (The Museum of
Modern Art, New York).
14. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Tango, 1918, black paint/paper, 33i" x 22". (Estate of
Mrs. Nelly van Doesburg).
15. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Composition in Gray, 1918, oil/canvas, 37f' x 23". (Peggy
Guggenheim Foundation, Venice).
16. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Composition XVI: In Dissonances, 1918-1919, oil/canvas,
25" x 23". (Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach, Clamart).
17. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Peinture Pure: Decomposition, 1920, oil/canvas, 52" x 32".
(National Museum of Modern Art, Paris).
X LIST OF PLATES
18. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Composition in White, Black and Gray, 1924, oil/canvas,
39!" x 39f'. (The Art Institute of Chicago).
19. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Counter-composition XVI, 1925, oil/canvas, 40" x 72".
(Municipal Museum, The Hague).
20. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Simultaneous Counter-composition, 1929-1930, oil/canvas,
19!H x 19f'. (The Museum of Modern Art, New York).
21. TH. VAN DOESBURG, Arithmetic Composition I, 1930, oil/canvas, 40-!" x 40t".
(Private Collection, Switzerland).
All photographs have been supplied by the owners except for figure 9, which was supplied
by Eric PoIIitzer, Garden City Park, New York.
INTRODUCTION
FRANCIS BULHOF
"What was Modernism?" That is the title of an address delivered in June of
1960 by the eminent comparatist Harry Levin at Queen's University in King
ston, Ontario.1 Apparently, more than a decade ago, in the eyes of this per
ceptive analyst of literature and the arts, the modernist movement had become
a thing of the past. Having acquired full citizenship in the republic of letters,
modernism had outlived itself.
The title of Harry Levin's lecture bears an obvious resemblance to that of
Fritz Martini's book-length essay Was war Expressionismus?,2 which dealt
exclusively with the German variant of the expressionist movement. In the
case of German expressionism there is much dispute concerning the precise
moment of its decline and fall, but the political conditions provide at least a
crucial dividing line in the year 1933. The end of modernism, however, a far
more comprehensive movement which was not just limited to one country, is
not so easy to determine. And there is also still much discussion about its
roots.
One can argue, with Harry Levin, that the origins of modernism are to be
found in humanism and 18th century enlightenment. Its intellectualism, its
calm and clear "non serviam" and its refusal to give in to the forces of un
reason are visible for those who want to see them. Yet, there are other ele
ments as well. Kant's idealist philosophy, Schiller's aesthetic theories, the
writings of Rousseau and Diderot have been advanced as sources of modern
ism by critics such as Hugo Friedrich3 and Walter Soke1.4
In spite of these conflicting opinions as to the origins of modernism, there
seems to be fairly general agreement that Baudelaire was its first focal prac
titioner. It is not just Andre Breton's critical activity which is responsible for
this consensus. It is indeed hardly possible to deny the patriarchate of mod-
1 "What was Modernism?" in Harry Levin, Refractions, pp. 271-295.
2 Fritz Martini, Was war Expressionismus?, Drach, Port Verlag, 1948.
3 Hugo Friedrich, Die Struktur der modernen Lyrik.
4 Walter Sokel, The Writer in Extremis.
2 FRANCIS BULHOF
ernism to someone who described, as Baudelaire did in his Fusees,s surnatu
ralism and irony as the two fundamental qualities of literature.
Most critics, furthermore, agree that in the wake of Baudelaire, Rimbaud
and Mallarme expanded the cult of the New and the Now, while Walt Whit
man officiated as one of its high priests. To use the paradox coined by Harold
Rosenberg, "the tradition of the New" was launched in the second half of the
nineteenth century.
There seems to be little argument concerning this lineage. Yet, two trends
become visible in the writings on modernism. First of all, numerous critics
stress the modernists' message of doom and despair. Since man lost the solid
anchor of absolute faith, they contend, he increasingly sought refuge in the
arts, even if he realized that help from that quarter was largely illusory.
Similarly, since the artist had lost his place and function in society, a not
so-splendid isolation served as a last resort. The bleak picture of the alienated,
lonely artist, threatened by the forces of an absurd society and an equally
absurd universe, can be found in such diverse works as those of Anna Bala
kian, Renato Poggioli, and Walter Sokel. 6 In a concise paradox Lionel Trilling
described the underlying psychological attitude as "the disenchantment of
our culture with culture itself." Among the essays presented here, A. L. S6te
7
mann's "Non-spectacular modernism: Martinus Nijhoff's poetry in its Euro
pean context" profoundly shares this view.
The second trend, emphasizing the artist as a self-confident creator and the
work of art as an autonomous entity, is perceptible in Harry Levin's 1960
lecture. It is also one of the ingredients of J. C. Brandt Corstius' essay "The
international context of Dutch literary modernism," which functions as an
overture in this volume.
As early a 'modernist' as Friedrich Schiller, in his letters on aesthetics,S
contended that the secret of art was to be found in the artist's abolition of
content by means of form. More than half a century later, another 'modern
ist' by the name of Nietzsche remarked that the price for being an artist is to
consider the content of the work of art, "the thing itself," as that which all
5 Baudelaire, (Buvres, p. 1197: "deux qualites litteraires fondamentales: surnaturalisme
et ironie."
6 Anna Balaldan, Literary Origins of Surrealism. Renato Poggioli, The Theory of the
Avant-garde.
7 Lionel Trilling, "On the Modern Element in Modern Literature," p. 408.
8 Friedrich Schiller, "Ueber die Aesthetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von
Briefen," 22nd Letter: "In einem wahrhaft schonen Kunstwerk soli der Inhalt nichts, die
Form aber alles tun; denn durch die Form allein wird auf das Ganze des Menschen, durch
den Inhalt hingegen nur auf einzelne Krafte gewirkt [ ... J. Darin also besteht das eigentliche
Kunstgeheimnis des Meisters, dass er den Stoff durch die Form vertilgt."
