Theo van Doesburg Archer De Stijl Poster

Doesburg's 1919 Archer is a characteristic representative of the De Stijl principles. The vertically stressed figure of the archer defines the composition, and is built up from blue and black triangular, rectangular and pentagonal planes. The forces necessary to draw the arrow are concentrated at a single point: at the point of intersection of the verticality of the body and the horizontality of the stretched arm, and the transversals of the bow also run to this point. The dynamic implicit in this motion is heightened by the diagonality of the leg planted backwards. The form of the blue field encompassing the "HEKA" caption provides another diagonal emphasis. Doesburg's advertising design follows the simple, clarified method of the new typography, which characterised the typographic work of Russian Constructivists just as much as the publications of the Bauhaus in the twenties, or the periodical, De Stijl. The motif of the archer appeared for the first time in a pen and ink drawing of more natural attitude in 1917. Doesburg most probably developed this further in his designs prepared for labels for cheese of the company Klaverweide en Zoon in 1919, in which the figure of the archer already appeared in a form identical to this. In a letter written to J. J. Pieter Oud in December 1919, Doesburg makes mention of his designs for the profile of Hagemeyer & Co. Among these might be included the Archer, which was presumably planned as a poster design.