Georges Vantongerloo

Georges Vantongerloo, born on 6 October 1886 in Antwerp, is one of the great pioneers of modernism, working as a painter, sculptor and architect. The postulated maxim of the connection of art and life, influences of Spinoza's ethics or the reflection of political, social and scientific developments are strongly involved in Vantongerloo's avant-garde works.
Together with Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, with whom he is in close contact, and other artists, Vantongerloo signs the first manifesto of the artist group De Stijl and is thus one of its co-founders. The artist is also active at the magazine i 10 in Amsterdam and last but not least he played an important role in the Paris artist group Abstraction Création as Vice President. In the period immediately after the Second World War, Vantongerloo freed himself from pure geometric abstraction and strict constructivism and turned to the examination of sculptural works; he created multifaceted wire and coloured Plexiglas sculptures. Rather, he now devotes himself to unlimited and universal space, taking up topics such as atoms and radiation, refraction of light and speed, the ambivalence of materiality and imagination, visibility and perception.
Vantongerloo's rational constructivist style is increasingly giving way to an intuitive expression, while remaining true to his reduced, almost minimalist solutions in painting and sculpture.
His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Josef Albers Museum Bottrop, Centraal Museum Utrecht or Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Madrid.