< nr. 54 >

Berlijnse stoel

by Gerrit Rietveld
Label: Rietveld by Rietveld

Year: 1923

The Berlin Chair was designed by Gerrit Rietveld for an exhibition space at the Berlin Art Exhibition in Berlin, for which the painter, designer and fellow member of 'De Stijl' movement, Vilmos Huszar was asked to design the interior.

The chair consists of four wide panels and three narrow slats, which have been placed at right angles and serveas both frame and support. For that reason, the chair is also referred to as the 'Plank Chair.'

The chair was painted in neutral grey, white and black for the exhibition in Berlin, to complement and contrast the bright primary coloured blocks that Huszar had painted on the walls of the exhibition space. During the second world war, Rietveld painted the chair black. In 1975 the original colours were restored in the Rietveld Schroder House in Utrecht. The chair has also been produced as a mirror image of the original. Rietveld's carpenter G.A. van de Groenekan was the first to produce the chair, but it was taken over by Rietveld's heirs, in 2004.