Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Utrecht/Utrecht, 1888/1964
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888, seems possessed of two personalities, each so distinct that one might take his work to be that of more than one artist. The first personality is that seen in the craftsman cabinet-maker working in a primordial idiom, re-inventing chairs and other furniture as if no one had ever built them before him and following a structural code all of his own; the second is that of the architect working with elegant formulas, determined to drive home the rationalist and neoplastic message in the context of European architecture. The two activities alternate, overlap, and fuse in a perfect osmosis unfolding then into a logical sequence. In 1918 Rietveld joined the “De Stijl” movement which had sprung up around the review of that name founded the year before by Theo van Doesburg. The group assimilated and translated into ideology certain laws on the dynamic breakdown of compositions (carrying them to an extreme) that had already been expressed in painting by the cubists: the “De Stijl” artists also carefully studied the architectonic lesson taught by the great Frank Lloyd Wright, whose influence was widely felt in Europe at that time.
Collaborating first with Robert van’t Hoff and Vilmos Huszar, then with Theo van Doesburg and Cornelius van Eesteren, Rietveld soon became one of the most distinguished interpreters of the neoplastic message. Among his most important works are: the Schröder house at Utrecht (1924); the “Row Houses” at Utrecht (1931-34); the Dutch pavilion at the Venice Biennial (1954); the sculpture pavilion in the Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller at Otterloo and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (1955). Out of his equally important furniture, Cassina has chosen for its own production: the “Red and Blue” (1918), the “Zig-Zag” (1934), the “Schröder 1” (1923), the “Utrecht” (1935)

The products of this designer

Utrecht Sofas

Brand: Cassina

Curved sofa, straight twoor threeseater sofas with steel supporting frame. Polyurethane foam and polyester padding. Fabric upholstery with white fine stitching. Leather upholstery is available for the straight sofas. Feet in black plastic material.

VAI

Zig Zag

Brand: Cassina

Designed by Rietveld in 1934, this chair sees the normal legs-seatback sequence replaced by a single sheet of wood in an overturned Z shape. It was also one of the first examples of a cantilevered seat. The dovetail joints, visible on the rear between the seat and the back show off the quality of Cassina carpentry. In addition to the version in natural cherry wood, the chair also comes in natural ash and in a coloured version with an open-pore finish to show off the wood vein, featuring primary colours (red, blue and yellow) and non-colours (black and white) for the horizontal parts and natural ash for the side sections.

VAI

Red and Blue, Black Red and Blue

Brand: Cassina

The Red and Blue armchair is an iconic model designed by Gerrit T. Rietveld in 1918. It is made with a frame in black dyed beech with blue seat and red backrest in painted plywood. Lines and surfaces are arranged in a vertical-horizontal composition, linked to one another without any joints.
The Black Red and Blue (Zeilmaker version) born from Rietveld’s chromatic experimentation
While researching the origins of the Red and Blue model in collaboration with the Rietveld heirs, it emerged that the key idea of the first prototypes was based on the concept of spatial organisation expressed through the monochrome tones of its elements. The first version was in fact produced in 1918 in completely unpainted wood. In the following years Rietveld proposed various examples, either monochrome or painted in different colours, depending on the requirements of his customers and the interiors for which the chairs were intended. As such, it comes as no surprise to find this 1920s version, presented as part of Cassina’s MutAzioni selection, created for the school teacher Wicher Zeilmaker with a black frame with white ends and a dark green painted seat and backrest. It was Rietveld’s ever-increasing involvement in the De Stijl movement that led him to also use primary colours on this model in 1923, and as such the chair became a veritable manifesto for the emerging neoplastic movement. Initially dubbed Slat chair, Rietveld only gave it the name Red and Blue in the 1950s following its chromatic evolution. The various owners of the different examples used the chair as an abstract-realist sculpture in their interiors and, in some cases, as a simple tool for sitting on, adding cushions to make it more comfortable, just like Cassina offers for the Black Red and Blue today.

VAI

Cassina Red and Blue, Black Red and Blue

Utrecht Armchair

Brand: Cassina

Rietveld, Dutch architect with a strong bent for experimentation, and one of the founders, with Mondrian, of the neo-plastic de stijl movement in 1917, designed the Utrecht model in 1935. This model was created for the Metz&co department store in Amsterdam, hence conceived for the mass market, and represents Rietveld’s decision to adopt a more “market oriented” approach to comfort and relaxation. An example of the breakdown of elements, emphasised by two types of visible stitching (saddle stitch or zig zag) in five different colours.

VAI

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

The products of this designer

Utrecht Sofas

Zig Zag

Red and Blue, Black Red and Blue

Utrecht Armchair

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