Gerrit T. Rietveld

The Dutch designer Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, was born in Utrecht in 1888.

His work can be seen in two distinct categories. Firstly his work as an architect, where he strived to create a rationalist and neoplastic structures. Secondly, his work as a cabinet-maker, crafting sculptural wooden chairs.

Yet these separate mediums are not at odds, often creating furniture for his buildings; where they were designed to work as a whole. The geometry and linear forms of the home composed into sections through colour blocking is continued in his furniture. This concept is most prevalent through looking at the Schröder house built in 1924 and his 635 armchair. The Chair's different forms defined by colour and the house's open-plan spaces divide it into rooms through colour.

Rietveld was a leading figure in the De Stijl movement, a sub-section of international modernism. The Style was formed by Theo van Doesburg and saw clarity and spiritualism in the linear composition of forms and primary colours. The movement started through a print journal and had no political agenda.