Inspiration
Callum Hewitt took inspiration for the Minimalist Collection from the design movement De Stijl. De Stijl is a art movement that was started by Dutch Architects which featured simple geometric compositions and primary colours. De Stijl focusses on the simplicity of the straight line and its ability to create a variety of shapes and designs. This idea is fundamental to his artwork as his art is built on the foundations of clean straight black lines which are manipulated and used to form shadows, materiality and the form of the buildings in my work. Therefore, due to this connection, he believed that it would be interesting to investigate further with the fundamentals on De Stijl, combining this with his work. He set about setting guidelines of his own to his new collection. Featuring a greyscale palette, requiring three hand drawings and a quote to tie the pieces together.
The Design
Taking the core geometric principles of the De Stijl Style, Callum Hewitt put his twist on the style. This includes leaving voids within the geometric organisation to allow for his drawings, also removing the primary colours and reverting to a greyscale palette as set out to do. The lines in the variation are made thinner than the lines usually used in De Stijl, these thin lines are a closer match to the intricate thin lines used in his drawings. These thin lines also placed less emphasis on their presence but rather the spaces they create and soon the drawings which will fill the spaces. Callum Hewitt released the piece to the right without the drawings as available to purchase. This is because this art piece would be the perfect compliment to the later pieces, further emphasising the drawings in the later made pieces by their absence in this piece
The Drawings
Then having to select the drawings used in the collection, Callum Hewitt opted for the Modern Architectural Drawings. This was due to the similarities in the form of these buildings and the geometric composition of the De Stijl inspired design made. Buildings like this include the CCTV Headquarter in Beijing by architect Rem Koolhaas (as seen on the right), the Louvre Pyramid by architect I.M.Pei and the Walt Disney Concert Hall by architect Frank Gehry. All of these drawings were of buildings built in the last century with similar characteristics such as their predominant and unusual forms, their material palette and the crosshatching method Callum Hewitt used on these pieces. All of these similarities meant that all of the drawings would work well together in the same piece of art
The Creation
Here we can see one of the final designs, as the design evolved, Callum realised than the amount of line needed to be minimised in order to allow the drawings to be the forefront of the piece. Callum also decided to break further away from De Stijl as now the shapes created by the lines no longer fully contains the drawings. Some sit on top of the lines, spilling over into the next space, while other appears as they are coming out of the lines to add movement and life into the piece. However, it is clear to see that in all of the pieces, the beautiful asymmetry of De Stijl has been maintained throughout and this aims Callum set out with the project were all achieved in every piece of the collection. The Deconstructivist way of thinking implored by Callum also matches the thoughts of the architects of the buildings used in the pieces. With unconventional designs which split opinions in every instance, in particular the design for the Royal Ontario Museum extension by architect Daniel Libeskind. The block colours which sit behind some of the drawings in these pieces also add depth and refer to the block colours in the De Stijl movement.
Final Collection
Minimalist Collection Commisions
Create your own minimalist collage with drawings from the Hewitt Sketches portfolio, or, commission buildings close to your heart to feature in the art piece