Jozef Peeters made international contacts in this period and first made advances to the group De Stijl from the Netherlands. The Stijl’s ‘Monthly paper for the modern visual affairs’ (1917 - 1931) is a ground-breaking publication under the editorship of Theo Van Doesburg (1883 - 1931), which supports a new art by which artistic activities and societal context go together. Van Doesburg, who promotes De Stijl intensively abroad (in Germany, Italy and France, inter alia) in 1920 and 1921, gives various lectures in Belgium. They are highly relevant for the rise of the geometrical abstract in Antwerp and Brussels. The lecture Klassiek, barok, Modern (Classical, Baroque, Modern) takes place in Antwerp on 13 February 1920 in the Lutgardiszaal (Sanderusstraat 53, Antwerp). Exactly one month later, on 13 March, Van Doesburg gives a lecture on De Stijl in the Centre d’Art (Caudenberg 6) in Brussels, under the initiative of a young group centred around the brothers Pierre and Victor Bourgeois. In addition to the brothers Bourgeois, Georges Vantongerloo and René Magritte, there are also some of the later 7 Arts colleagues present: Pierre-Louis Flouquet, Felix De Boeck and Victor Servranckx. The term ‘Zuivere Beelding’ (Plastique Pure or Pure Plasticism) would be used for the first time by Van Doesburg here.
