The Dutch artist Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) used the term neoplasticism to describe his abstract paintings containing straight lines, black and white, and primary colors.
In 1917, in the Netherlands, painter, designer, writer and critic Theo van Johannesburg (1883-1931) published De Stijl (The Style), a magazine that expressed the ideas of a group of artists and architects. The publication became an important vehicle for Mondrian's ideas about art. In the first editions, he published "Neoplasticism in pictorial art," explaining: "As a pure representation of the human mind, art will express itself aesthetically purified, [...] Summary. […] This new idea of plastic [...] will find its expression [...] in the straight line and in the clearly defined primary color. "Although Mondrian called his neoplastic style, he was also called De Stijl, and it implied the reduction of all elements to their most fundamental colors and forms, depending on the spirituality or intuition of the artist. Ideas evolved from Mondrian's belief in theosophy, a philosophy that led him to seek intrinsic universal harmonies and the spiritual order of the world through his art.

Influenced by Cubism, suprematism and constructivism, as well as by the ideas of Van Amsterdam and Bart van der Leck (1876-1958), Mondrian insisted on devoting himself only to geometric forms, straight lines, asymmetry, balance and harmony. By the time World War II broke out, all neoplasticians had already dispersed, although some artists remained faithful to the principles of the movement independently.

MAIN ARTISTS: PIET MONDRIAN • THEO VAN JOHANNESBURG • BART VAN DER LECK • GEORGES VANTONGERLOO