Stefi Kiesler’s Typo-Plastics as Fundamental Comments on De Stijl

In 1927, at the International Exhibitions of Modern Art in Buffalo and Toronto, the Société Anonyme exhibited remarkable works by the Austrian/American female artist, Stefi Kiesler: five of her so-called typo-plastics, abstract works she created on a typewriter about 1925 to 1926. Yet the fact that Stefi Kiesler was the creator of these works was not known for many years. Indeed, Kiesler had chosen to exhibit and publish her work using a male pseudonym, Pietro (de) Saga. Kiesler’s close contact with the art theorist and artist Theo van Doesburg and the international art movement De Stijl motivated her to create experimental work that was both linked to— and critical of—the movement. Her use of a male pseudonym was a strategy to ensure an objective reception of this work.