Gerrit Thomas Rietveld Overview

With an almost religious fervor, the members of the De Stijl movement held fast to rules relating to colors and their symbolic meanings. Yellow represented the power source of the sun. Blue stood for the horizontal lines essential to architecture. Red suggested the partnership between the two. When Rietveld translated a Piet Mondrian painting into a three-dimensional, useful object, it was clear that all the rules relating to style and taste were up for question. Rietveld never guessed that his "Red Blue Chair" of 1918 would become an icon -- a monument to the audacity of the new artists, architects, and designers of the movement. Their collective aim was simple, if not profound: to achieve perfect balance between humanity and society at large, and between society and nature through humanity's physical relationship to its space. They employed mathematical formulae to design everything from chairs to buildings; the square was a glorious form to them. This prominent and proficient cabinetmaker embraced the opportunity to design the Schroder house. His initial aim was to create a structure that could be manufactured simply and economically, yet promote a new design aesthetic. Rietveld designed various other objects, including the cartoon-like wheelbarrow of 1923. The impact of Rietveld's designs galvanized a renaissance that would influence the worlds of architecture and design for decades to come. The Bauhaus and International Style movements are both direct descendents of De Stijl, while the Arts & Crafts movement kept pace with similar ideas throughout America and Europe.