Theo van Doesburg
Biography
The Dutchman who came to Weimar to argue with the Bauhaus, taught his own course across the road from it, and changed the school without ever being employed by it.
A catalyst, in the school's own account
The Bauhaus institutions' own history of the Weimar years names him directly: Theo van Doesburg, Dutch De Stijl artist and propagandist, had acted on the school's development like a catalyst, as had its engagement with constructivism and with the demands of a technology-oriented world. That is an unusual admission for an institution to make about an outsider — the turn the Bauhaus is remembered for was pushed along by a man it never hired.
The course across the road
He did not teach inside the school. In 1922 he held his De Stijl course in the free studio of Karl Peter Röhl, a former Bauhaus student, in a building the city's register places directly opposite the art school. Students walked out of one and into the other. The building was destroyed in the Second World War, so the address where the argument happened no longer exists.
Utrecht to Davos
Born in Utrecht in 1883, he died at Davos in Switzerland in 1931, aged forty-seven. His Weimar months are a small part of a European career and a large part of this town's twentieth century: the straight line, the right angle and the primary colours arrived here as a rival course, not as a lecture the school invited.
Notable Works & Achievements
the De Stijl course held in Weimar in 1922
Historical Context
The school's own history calls him a catalyst of its development, from outside it.
The Bauhaus was founded in Weimar in 1919 and voted out by 1925 — time enough to change what a design school is, and not enough for the town that made it to keep it.
Read more about this period →Quick Facts
1883
1931
Dutch
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
A rival course, taught in a studio directly opposite the Bauhaus, by a man the school never employed.
The course is his: he taught it in Weimar in 1922.