<P> De Stijl ( / də ˈstaɪl / ; Dutch pronunciation : ( də ˈstɛil ) ) , Dutch for `` The Style '' , also known as Neoplasticism , was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917 in Leiden . De Stijl consisted of artists and architects . In a narrower sense , the term De Stijl is used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands . Proponents of De Stijl advocated pure abstraction and universality by a reduction to the essentials of form and colour ; they simplified visual compositions to vertical and horizontal , using only black , white and primary colors . </P>
what characterizes the art and design of the dutch art group known as de stijl
pure abstraction and universality