Designer
Gerrit Rietveld
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888–1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect, born in Utrecht as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to work in his father's shop, studied at night school and worked as a draughtsman for the Utrecht…
Biography
Background
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888–1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect, born in Utrecht as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to work in his father's shop, studied at night school and worked as a draughtsman for the Utrecht jeweller C. J. Begeer before opening his own furniture workshop in 1917.
Signature Style
Rietveld built furniture and buildings from clearly separated elements — planes, sticks and boards meeting without disguise — aiming at simple construction and eventual mass production. A member of De Stijl from 1919, he later turned to a functionalist architecture of prefabrication and standardisation.
Notable Works
- Red and Blue Chair (1917)
- Rietveld Schröder House, Utrecht (1924), a UNESCO World Heritage Site
- Zig-Zag chair (1934) and Utrecht armchair (1935), both produced by Cassina
- Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1953), Sonsbeek Pavilion, Van Gogh Museum design
Legacy
Amsterdam's art academy was renamed the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in his honour. Cassina reproduces his furniture in its I Maestri collection.
