''The Red and Blue Chair'' is a

chair A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...

designed in 1917 by

Gerrit Rietveld Gerrit Rietveld (24 June 1888 – 25 June 1964) was a Dutch furniture designer and architect. Early life Rietveld was born in Utrecht on 24 June 1888 as the son of a joiner. He left school at 11 to be apprenticed to his father and enrolled at ni ...

. It represents one of the first explorations by the

De Stijl ''De Stijl'' (; ), Dutch for "The Style", also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term ''De Stijl'' is used to refer to a body o ...

art movement in three dimensions.

History

The original chair was constructed of unstained beech wood and was not painted until the early 1920s.Victoria and Albert Museum. Modern Chairs, 1918–1970: an international exhibition presented by the Whitechapel Art Gallery in association with the Observer, arranged by the Circulation Department, Victoria and Albert Museum, 22 July–30 August 1970 (London: Whitechapel Gallery, 1970), 8. Fellow member of De Stijl and architect,

Bart van der Leck Bart van der Leck (26 November 1876, Utrecht (city), Utrecht – 13 November 1958, Blaricum) was a Dutch painter, designer, and ceramicist. With Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian he founded the De Stijl art movement. Son of a house painter, h ...

, saw his original model and suggested that he add bright colours. He built the new model of thinner wood and painted it entirely black with areas of primary colors attributed to De Stijl movement. The effect of this color scheme made the chair seem to almost disappear against the black walls and floor of the

Rietveld Schröder House The Rietveld Schröder House ( nl, Rietveld Schröderhuis) (also known as the Schröder House) in Utrecht (Prins Hendriklaan 50) was built in 1924 by Dutch architect Gerrit Rietveld for Mrs. Truus Schröder-Schräder and her three children. She c ...

, where it was later placed. The areas of color appeared to float, giving it an almost transparent structure. An original example is on display at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. In Rietveld's instructions on how to build the chair, he informs the craftsperson to print the following verse from ''Der Aesthet'' by

Christian Morgenstern Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern (6 May 1871 – 31 March 1914) was a German author and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin ...

and attach it under the seat: :''Wenn Ich sitze, möchte Ich nicht'' :''sitzen, wie Mein Sitzfleisch möchte'' :''sondern wie Mein Sitzgeist sich,'' :''säße er, den Stuhl sich flöchte.'' :"When I sit, I do not want / to sit like my seat-flesh likes / but rather like my seat-mind would, / if he were sitting, weave the chair for himself."

The Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of the ...

, which houses the chair in its permanent collection, a gift from

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...

, states that the red, blue, and yellow colors were added around 1923. A version of the chair also resides at the

High Museum of Art The High Museum of Art (colloquially the High) is the largest museum for visual art in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta, Georgia (on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the city's arts district), the High is 312,000 square feet (28, ...

, Atlanta. It features several

Rietveld joint A Rietveld joint, also called a Cartesian node in furniture-making, is an overlapping joint of three battens in the three orthogonal directions. Description A Rietveld joint is an overlapping joint of three battens in the three orthogonal dir ...

s. The Red and Blue Chair was reported to be on loan to the

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

Faculty of Architecture as part of an exhibition. On May 13, 2008, a fire destroyed the entire building, but the Red and Blue Chair was saved by firefighters. A version of the chair was sold by Christies in 2011 for €10,625.

References

External links

{{commons category, Red Blue chair
Blueprints: Red & Blue Chair (mm)

Building plan (adaptation based loosely on original)

plans in PDF with dimensions in mm

* ttp://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=4044 Museum of Modern Art De Stijl Chairs Individual pieces of furniture Gerrit Rietveld

History

See also

References

External links