on display within them. Projects he worked on included a stand for a
celluloid manufacturer at the Utrecht Annual Industrial Fair of 1921 and
a 1928 design for a display stand for the Nederlandse Kabelfabriek which
was illustrated in the Dutch magazine, Wendingen. They were both highly
innovative designs combining graphics and three-dimensional display
design in striking abstract compositions. Although Piet Mondrian, the
most prominent of all the De Stijl artists, did not have a background
in the applied arts, he developed a special relationship with the interior
nonetheless, understanding it as a series of flat planes on to which art could
be placed.^7 He applied his ideas to his own studios, creating a series of
spaces at one with the work he produced within them.
The programme to which the De Stijl artists and architects signed
up was not only aesthetically driven, however. It also had a strong social 171
Piet Zwart,
Nederlandse Kabel -
fabriek Exhibition
Stand, Tentoonstelling,
nenyto, Rotterdam,
1928 , illustrated in
Wendingen, 1928.