Bart van der Leck

Van der Leck was born on 26 November 1876, in Utrecht. Son of a house painter, he started his career learning how to make stained glass in a shop in Utrecht. An example of his later stained glass work is in the Kröller-Müller Museum. After having met Mondrian and van Doesburg and having founded the Stijl movement with them, his style became completely abstract, as did Mondrian's. But after disagreements with Mondrian his abstract style became based on representational images. His painting Triptych is an example, in which he transformed sketches of a mine in Spain into seemingly abstract shapes. In 1919-1920 he created the interior design for St Hubertus Hunting Lodge, in the Hoge Veluwe estate. The hunting lodge was designed by Hendrik Petrus Berlage. In 1930, he was commissioned by Jo de Leeuw, owner of the prestigious Dutch department store Metz & Co. to design interiors, window packaging, branding and advertising. For these print materials van der Leck developed a rectilinear, geometrically constructed alphabet. In 1941, he designed a typeface based on this alphabet for the avant garde magazine Flax. Architype van der Leck, a digital revival of that face by David Quary and Freda Sack of The Foundry, was released in 1994. Bart van der Leck claimed to be the father of the avant-garde movement. In his own words he said: "Mondrian came to my place one day with Doesburg, whom I had never seen before. When Doesburg noticed an abstract painting right on the easel, he exclaimed: 'If that is to be the painting of the future, may I be hanged right now!' Well, a few months later, he was painting in precisely that manner. That's the sort of person Doesburg was. No ideas of his own. And a cheat in bargain...." Van der Leck died on 13 November 1958, in Blaricum.

The authorities additionally record the headings Bart Van der Leck, Bart Antony van der Leck, Bart van Der Leck, Bart Anthonij van der Leck and Bart Anthony van der Leck. His recorded language was Dutch.

Bart van der Leck worked in ceramic art, product design, stained glass design and graphic design. His work is associated with abstract art. He belonged to De Stijl. He worked at Amsterdam, Utrecht, Blaricum and Amersfoort.

Bart van der Leck is recorded as a citizen of Kingdom of the Netherlands. Recorded with the occupation textile artist. Classed in the genre abstract art.

Among the public collections holding works by the artist are: • Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands • Kröller-Müller Museum