Gerrit Rietveld- De Stijl

Gerrit Rietveld was born in Holland, he became one of the most important designers and architects of the 20th century. Initially he was a trained carpenter and became involved in the De Stijl movement. His work was reflective of the ideals and objectives of this movement. He transformed objects and buildings into designs of abstract lines. He mainly used primary colours, black, white and grey. His infamous red-blue chair was originally produced without colour, the coloured version appeared around 1923. This was followed in 1924 by his first architectural project which is the well-known Rietveld- Schroder House.

Red-blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld

Gerrit Rietveld produced this chair using only square and rectangular pieces of wood. He used no nails, but instead connected every corner using little pieces of wood. The chair is very uncomfortable, it was designed so. The intention being that one would remain awake and alert when sitting in it and not sink into it and fall asleep. The colours used, red, blue and black were used so that they would make the art appeal to everyone. This particular chair was also created in red for Rietveld's own use in his home.

D-W-A redesigns the Red and Blue chair by Gerrit rietveld

D-W-A redesigned the Red-Blue chair calling it the DZA RnB extended edition. Being that from a chair they extended the design to a two-seater plus a table. The designer of this modern furniture was inspired from when he was a teenager. He had seen the chair at a friend's house and fell in love with it. Rietveld became his favourite designer and when he had problems with getting inspired, he would look to him. The company has produced other variations of the red-blue chair, namely using natural finishes of birch and walnut. Some people criticised and misunderstood their project, saying they had ruined a classic design, but their argument is that they ''pay homage to one of the most influential and revolutionary designers of the 20th century''.

Vitra Design Museum. 2012. Gerrit Rietveld. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.design-museum.de/en/exhibitions/detailseiten/detailseiten/gerrit-rietveld.html. [Accessed 26 January 14].

Wikipedia. 2013. Gerrit Rietveld. [ONLINE] Available at: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrit_Rietveld. [Accessed 26 January 14].

Art of Europe. 2010. Red-Blue Chair. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.slam.org/moderneuropean/works/14.html. [Accessed 26 January 14].

Phaidon Club. no date. Gerrit Rietveld [The Remix]. [ONLINE] Available at: http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/design/articles/2012/january/20/gerrit-rietveld-the-remix/. [Accessed 26 January 14].