Red and Blue Chair

Red and Blue Chair

The Red and Blue Chair
Designer Gerrit Rietveld
Date 1918
Materials Lacquered wood
Style / tradition De Stijl
Height 88 cm (35 in)
Width 66 cm (26 in)
Depth 83 cm (33 in)

The Red and Blue Chair is a chair designed in 1917 by Gerrit Rietveld. It represents one of the first explorations by the De Stijl art movement in three dimensions.

History

The original chair was constructed of unstained beech wood and was not painted until the early 1920s.[1] Fellow member of De Stijl and architect, Bart van der Leck, saw his original model and suggested that he add bright colours.[2] 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 Schröder house where it was later placed.[3] The areas of color appeared to float, giving it an almost transparent structure.[4]

The Museum of Modern Art, which houses the chair in its permanent collection, a gift from Philip Johnson, states that the red, blue,and yellow colors were added around 1923.[5] The chair also resides at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.[6] It features several Rietveld joints.

The Red and Blue Chair was reported to be on loan to the Delft University of Technology 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.[7]

As of 2012, it resides in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

As of 2013, it has been moved to Auckland, New Zealand.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 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.
  2. ↑ Klaus-Jürgen Sembach, Twentieth Century Furniture Design (Köln : Taschen, c2002), 93.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Klaus-Jürgen Sembach, Twentieth Century Furniture Design (Köln : Taschen, c2002), 92. 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.
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ "Press Release". High Museum of Art. Retrieved 2009-11-20.
  7. ↑ TU Delft fire news story
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