Provenance
The Artist's Estate
Note: The Dutch constructivist artist Jan Schreuder began his training at the School of Fine Arts in The Hague and in 1930 he moved to Madrid, where he continued his education at the San Fernando School of Fine Arts. After marrying in Spain, he moved to the United States and in 1945 left for Quito where he established the 'Iuadorea Art Centre' and the ''del Centro da Manufacturas Textiles de Quito,'' Ecuador, in 1952.
Schreuder was influenced by the Dutch artistic movement De Stiyl. The 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.
In general, De Stijl proposed ultimate simplicity and abstraction, both in architecture and painting, by using only straight horizontal and vertical lines and rectangular forms. Furthermore, their formal vocabulary was limited to the primary colours, red, yellow, and blue, and the three primary values, black, white, and grey. The works avoided symmetry and attained aesthetic balance by the use of opposition.