'Gerrit Rietveld – The Revolution of Space' at Vitra Design Museum
17 May – 16 Sep '12
From 17 May to 16 September 2012, the Vitra Design Museum presents “Gerrit Rietveld – The Revolution of Space”. The Dutchman Gerrit Rietveld (1888-1964) was one of the most important designers and architects of the 20th century.
Today his work is primarily associated with his two most famous designs, which have become icons of modernism: the Red-Blue Chair (1918/1923) and the Rietveld-Schröder House (1924). But this exhibition shows that Rietveld’s oeuvre contains many more facets that deserve to be rediscovered.
This Vitra Design Museum exhibition is the first major retrospective on Gerrit Rietveld to be presented to the German-speaking public since 1996. Comprising around 320 objects – including furniture, models, paintings, photographs, films and approximately 100 original drawings and plans – it offers a comprehensive overview of the Dutch designer’s work. In addition, it incorporates comparative works by contemporaries such as Theo van Doesburg, Bart van der Leck, Le Corbusier and Marcel Breuer, thus shedding light on the mutual exchange of ideas and Rietveld’s place in the context of other modernist currents.
Red-Blue Chair, Gerrit Rietveld, 1918/1923 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012
Zig-Zag Chair, Gerrit Rietveld, c. 1932 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012, Photo: Thomas Dix
Interior of the Rietveld Schröder House, Gerrit Rietveld, 1924 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012, Photo: Kim Zwarts
Van Slobbe House, (Heerlen), Gerrit Rietveld 1961-63 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012, Photo: Ton Roelofsma/ Collection Rietveld Schröder Archive, Utrecht
Gerrit Rietveld with a model of the “core house”, 1941 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2012, Photo: Collection Rietveld Schröder Archive, Utrecht
