Doesburg, Theo van, 1883-1931, Dutch painter, teacher, and writer. Together with Mondrian he founded the magazine De Stijl and successfully proselytized in Europe for the new aesthetic of abstraction, simplicity, clarity, and harmony. He influenced Gropius and taught at the Bauhaus and in Berlin from 1921 to 1923. In 1926 he developed a more dynamic version of De Stijl principles, called elementarism. The Museum of Modern Art, New York City, has several of his compositions.