''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. It 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 n ...

. It represents one of the first explorations by the

De Stijl De Stijl (, ; 'The Style') was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 by a group of artists and architects based in Leiden (Theo van Doesburg, Jacobus Oud, J.J.P. Oud), Voorburg (Vilmos Huszár, Jan Wils) and Laren, North Holland, Laren (Piet Mo ...

art movement in three dimensions. It was not painted its distinct colors until the early 1920s. Multiple versions of the chair exist and are housed in various collections.

History

''The Red and Blue Chair'' is a

designed in 1917 by

. It represents one of the first explorations by the

art movement in three dimensions. It features several Rietveld joints. The original chair was constructed of unstained beech wood and was not painted red, blue, yellow, and black until around 1923.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 – 13 November 1958) was a Dutch painter, designer, and ceramicist. With Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian he founded the De Stijl art movement. Biography Van der Leck was born on 26 November 1876, in Ut ...

, 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 () (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 commissioned the house to ...

, where it was later placed. The areas of color appeared to float, giving it an almost transparent structure. A version of the chair was sold by Christies in 2011 for €10,625.

Construction

The chair embodies one of the principles of

machine aesthetic The machine aesthetic "label" is used in architecture and other arts to describe works that either draw the inspiration from industrialization with its mechanized mass production or use elements resembling structures of complex machines (ships, pla ...

, the erasing of distinctions between the load and

support Support may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Supporting character * Support (art), a solid surface upon which a painting is executed Business and finance * Support (technical analysis) * Child support * Customer support * Income Su ...

through a set of interlocking elements: the (red) back plays the role of the load (supported by a crossbar underneath the seat) and provides support for the arms at the same time. 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 writer 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: Rietveld did not maintain an authoritative specification of the measurements or colours and there are various versions of the chair.

Collections

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. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, and includes over 200,000 works of arc ...

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 who designed modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the postmodern 550 ...

—and an original example is on display at the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

in New York City. Versions of the chair are also on display 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 Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

and the

Toledo Museum of Art The Toledo Museum of Art is an internationally known art museum located in the Old West End neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio. It houses a collection of more than 30,000 objects. With 45 galleries, it covers 280,000 square feet and is currently in th ...

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is located at the western end of Lake Erie along the Maumee River. Toledo is the List of cities in Ohio, fourth-most populous city in Ohio and List of United Sta ...

. ''The Red and Blue Chair'' was on loan to the

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

Faculty of Architecture as part of an exhibition when a fire destroyed the entire building in May 2008. ''The Red and Blue Chair'' was saved by firefighters.

References

Sources

External links