Gerrit Rietveld - De Stijl : Task 2

Gerrit Rietveld

 Gerrit Rietveld was a Dutch architect, and furniture designer. He started working in his father´s workshop at the age of 12. From 1906 to 1911 he worked as a draughtsman  for C.J.Begeer, which    he was a jeweller in Utrecht. He was taking evening classes for drawing and he study of ornamentation at the Kunstnidustrieel Onderwijs der Vereening of the Museum Van Kunstnijverheid  

in Utrecht from 1904 to 1908. In 1906 he started to attend classes given by the architect P.J.C Klaarhamer (1894-1954). Klaarhamer and Bart Ver Derleek were a great influenced to Gerrit Rietveld development. He learnt a national and international trends in architecture applied arts.

Zigzag Chair by Gerrit Rietveld

In 1917 Rietveld opened a furniture workshop in Utrecht, a years later Gerard.A.Van de Groenekan went to work with Gerrit Rietveld as a apprentice where he helped him in his furniture designs throughout his career. After some time working in his own work shop Rietveld started to make furniture according to his own judgment and taste. In 1918 Gerrit Rietveld designed a version of the red, blue chair but it was not painted, and in 1923 he made the red, blue chair. This made him internationally famous. Today Gerrit Rietveld is known as a De Stijl architect and product designer. He inspired from Piet Mondrian was a dutch and he was an abstract artist. The three primary colours were allowed and a black grid with horizontal and vertical line on a white background. This abstract style was called Neo-Plasticisim. The contact that Gerrit made in the De Stijl movement gave him opportunity to exhibit abroad as well this even made him famous all around the world. He exhibited in Berlin in 1923, this included two scale models of pieces of furniture of his design, a number life size example the ´´ Berlin Chair ``.

Berlin Chair by  Gerrit Rietveld

Gerrit designed all his own printed matter where he received commissions from private individuals and from such magazines as De Gemeenschop and Nieuw Rusland.

 Red Blue chair (1923)

In 1923 Marcel Breuer made Slatted chair he was also inspired from the red blue chair.

In 1924 Gerrit Rietveld was given an opportunity to design house which he was getting commission in Utrecht  it was designed by Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs Trus Schröder-Schrader and her three children. She didn´t want any walls so Gerrit designed her house so it can be divided at any time she would like by the use of concertina walls. The outer side of the house was designed with a grey and white planer of varying sizes which were combined with horizontal and vertical accents in primary colours and black, Miss Schröder wanted connection with inside and out side, she lived in the house for 60 years. 

Gerrit Rietveld started to work on mass-produced furniture and architecture example of these are his experiments that he made in (1927-1942) with chairs that were made from one piece material. He loved to recognition of the avant-grade, especially in his De Stijl period. 

Gerrit Rietveld was inspired from the Neo Plasticism Piet Mondrain from Holland.

In 1914 the first World War had started and it 1918. In the WW1 Holland was neutral at that time. 

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