Biography

César Domela was born in Amsterdam on 15th January 1900. His father, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, a Lutheran priest leader of the Dutch left wing anarchist party, died in 1919. The same year César, who didn't feel like inheriting his political leadership, moved to Ascona. There he met Marianne von Werefkin and other artists who experienced the Monte Verità free-thinkers life style. In this Period Domela was a passionate reader of "The Book of Tao" and worked at his first paintings. In 1924 he was in Paris where he met Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg; he joined "De Stijl" group and created his first neoplastic work. In 1925 he exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York together with Kandinsky, Mondrian, Pevsner, Gabo, Lissitzky and took part in "L'Art d'Aujourd'hui" with Gris, Klee, Larionov, Brancusi and Mondrian.
In 1926 he met his wife to come, Ruth Derenberg. In 1927 they moved to Berlin. In 1929 Domela worked on his first neoplastic reliefs. In 1933 they left Germany for Paris. In 1936 he exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art on the occasion of "Cubism and Abstract Art" with Duchamp, Kandinsky, Klee, Kupka, Malevich and others. In 1937 his works were displayed in the "Konstruktivisten"-exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Basel. The same year he started the magazine - Plastique - with Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Jean A rp. By this time Domela's artistic personality was well defined and invitations to international exhibitions became more and more, frequent. He died in Paris in 1992.