NIJHOFF, 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."