Artist of the Day, September 17, 2025 : Georges Vantongerloo, a Belgian sculptor, painter, graphic artist (#2368)

Georges Vantongerloo (1886 – 1965) was a Belgian sculptor, painter, designer of furniture and buildings, and founding member of the De Stijl group.

From 1905 to 1909 Vantongerloo studied Fine Art at the Fine Art Academies in Antwerp and Brussels. Conscripted into World War I, he was wounded in a gas attack and discharged from the army in 1914. In 1916 he met Theo van Doesburg, and the following year he was a co-signator of the first manifesto of the De Stijl group.

Vantongerloo's articles, published in the periodical De Stijl between September 1918 and October 1920 and known as "Réflexions", compare art with nature and address the aims of the arts and the artist.

His pamphlet L'Art et Son Avenir was published in 1924 and includes his essay "Unité", which examines vibrations and the colour spectrum of light.

In 1927 Vantongerloo moved to Paris and began a correspondence with the Belgian Prime Minister, Henri Jaspar, in relation to the design of a bridge over the Scheldt at Antwerp. In 1930 he joined the Cercle et Carré group in Paris, and a year later he was a founding member of Abstraction-Création.

From 1955 Vantongerloo had a long friendship with the Swedish sculptor Gert Marcus.

After Vantongerloo died in 1965, Max Bill, a close friend of his, began advocating for him. Bill's widow, the art historian Angela Thomas Schmid, set up the Max Bill Georges Vantongerloo Foundation to support the legacy of both artists. On the art market, the estate has been represented by Hauser & Wirth since 2019.

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Georges Vantongerloo

Self-Portrait,  c. 1916

Moored Fishing Boats in Volendam,  c. 1915

Construction within a Sphere, c. 1917

Komposition aus dem Ovoid, c. 1918

Interrelation of Volumes, c. 1919

Rapports de volumes, c. 1919

Construction of Volume Relations,  c. 1921

Composition II, Indigo Violet Derived from Equilateral Triangle. Menton, c. 1921

Composition, c. 1921

Interrelation of Volumes from the Ellipsoid, c. 1926

Aéroport plus armature (Type A), c. 1928

XY = K Green and Red, c. 1929

Variation sur le carré inscrit et le carré circonscrit d’un cercle, c. 1929

XVII composition dans le carré, c. 1930

No. 98 2478 Red-135 Green, c. 1936

Fonction de lignes, c.1936

S x R/3 (Construction pour une sculpture) c. 1936

SXR/3, c. 1936

Fonction de lignes, rouge, vert c. 1937

Kurven, c. 1938

Relation of Lines and Colors c. 1939

Untitled,  c. 1939

Colours in space, c. 1946

Des Masses dans l'univers (Masses in the Universe), c. 1946

Des Masses dans l'univers (Masses in the Universe), c. 1946

Cocoon Chrysalis Embryonic, c. 1950

Forms and Colours in Space, c. 1950

Segment d’espace, c. 1953

Plusieurs éléments, c. 1960

Cosmic phenomenon, c. 1962

Une étoile gazeuse, c. 1964

Construction Of Volume