Research: Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

During this weeks Art Portfolio class, we were assigned to research and artist that inspired our work. We carried out an exercise in class on how to properly showcase and research someone's history as a means of understanding their artwork and actions in more depth.

The first artist I decided to research was Gerrit Thomas Rietveld as he was the one that sparked my inspiration about this project. 

Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was born on the 24^th of June 1888 and died on the 25^th of June 1964. He is a Dutch furniture designer and architect which was involved in an artistic movement called De Stijl.

De Stijl was a Dutch movement that was founded by Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. 'De Stijl' means 'style' in Dutch and it consisted of architects and artists. It includes a visual language consisting of precise geometric forms, straight lines, squares, rectangles and primary colours.

When he was 11 years old, he left school to join a night school and started working as a draughtsman for C.J Begeer who was a jeweller. His tutor, Piet Klaarhamer was a known architect in the at the Utercht Museum of Applied arts where he studied. In 1917, Rietveld was skilled enough to open his own workshop as he taught himself how to draw, paint and model make. 

Rietveld’s goal was to product more affordable, simpler, modern and more accessible products to the market as he felt that the furniture in that time was too heavy and unnecessarily expensive. He was hoping that his furniture would eventually be mass produced and not hand-crafted. 

Rietveld was involved in a project to build the Rietveld Schroder House alongside Truus Schroder- Schrader. The daughter of Schroder-Schrader was very inspired and impressed by Rietveld and she decided to become one of the first female architects in the Netherlands. 

By the 1920s, the main focus of Rietveld was to find inexpensive production methods, new materials in order to produce products that are of quality but more affordable. Rietveld was the one who revolutionised the way that furniture was designed. He got married in 1922 and had six children. Some known Rietveld works include the Zig-Zag chair and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam which he was unable to see the final result as he died.

Rietveld was also assigned to design a house and the furniture inside for a person he knew. He was assigned a task to create small furniture for a functional and flexible house as a means of solving the problem of little space. This is exactly my brief for this terms project and I am aiming to design furniture to conserve space. Rietveld's ideas was so advanced that he even created his own grammar in the house to understand his ideas and how to execute them. He was constantly on the look out for nrew materials and innovative ways to introduce products to the market. 

In the following space, I will be analysing some of Rietveld's work that stood out to me the most:

Red Blue Chair (1918-1923)

It is evident that the first three designs were created when he was a part of the De Stijl movement. De stijl means 'style' in Dutch and it is based upon strict ideals of vertical and horizontal geometry. In this piece, it is clear that Rietveld also used the common colours in the De Stijl movement which include black, red, yellow and blue. Adding the three primary colours together created a very harmonic contrast and it makes the chair stand out. He examined the interaction between the vertical and horizontal pieces of wood just like he did in architecture. This chair was handcrafted, however, Rietveld aimed for this chair to be mass-produced by some point as he wanted to create simplicity in designs that would be available for many people. 

This is one of Rietveld's most known pieces of work. This chair was originally designed using plain beech wood. However, 2 years after this chair was designed, Rietveld joined the De Stijl movement where the chair was painted the given colours. His chair was placed on black floors where it created the illusion that the chair was floating. I am very interested by this concept and I would love to explore this with the colour purple in my own design. 

Rietveld did not just prioritise the physical comfort of the user, but he also prioritised the well-being and comfort of the spirit. He thought that the hard back and seat would make people more alert and aware about their senses. Rietveld wished to keep the user physically and mentally alert without having the conventional ideas of comfort. Being very relaxed on a chair might cause the user to spill a drink or accidentally relax for too long and miss something important. The point of this chair was to make it influential for people to be alert. 

As I am designing products that are for university students, I could potentially look at creating hard chairs with hard seats and backs as a means of keeping them alert. I could create separate cushions that would allow the user to sink in and relax only when they are done with their work. By designing hard seats, it would keep the user alert to keep working on their assignments and not relax. Attaching cushions later would allow them to also have the ability to relax.

I could use this chair as an example of how to implement the colour purple in my own designs by adding different shades on different areas. Additionally, I could closely examine how he interacts all the surfaces together and how he joins one another. Rietveld's work was a huge inspiration for my project as I am looking to create simple furniture for small and functional apartments. I want my designs to be effective and hopefully be comfortable for both the physical and the well being of the spirit of the user. I think Rietveld is an excellent designer and I could learn a lot from his techniques. I could look more into the De Stijl movement and see how they implement various shapes and lines into their designs. I could link this to my purple colour theory and create a very unique piece of work. Working with symmetry is definitely something I am interested in so this research was very informative. 

Lastly, beech wood is a material used in various designs. I could look at the properties of this material and see if I could implement it in my own design. 

    Side Table (1923)

It is noticeable that geometry was a very important element in some of Rietveld's work. Even though he uses geometrical shapes in his piece, it is very asymmetrical as one interlaces with the other in an abstract way. In this table, he combines a square with two rectangles and a circle. After the red Blue chair became so popular, Rietveld was asked to build a house based on those principles and he also created furniture for the house. One of the pieces included in the house was this side table. He incorporates signature elements of the movement and the primary colours used. The basic palette creates a harmonic contrast that stands out. He implements horizontal and vertical shapes which is a characteristic of the De Stijl movement. 

The previous chair we looked at had only rectangles included in the design, which, although it was interesting it was not as abstract as this one. I love abstract art which is why the asymmetry of this table stands out to me. Interlacing different shapes and sizes into one design creates a very unique and authentic finish. I am definitely planning on researching more about implementing various shapes in my own design as a means of making it more interesting and complex. 

Child's wheelbarrow (1923)

Similarly to the previous design, Rietveld combines different shapes and the significant shades of the De Stijl movement to create the wheelbarrow. Just like the side table, I really like the colour palette used. The dominant colour in this design is yellow which might be directly related to the title 'Child's wheelbarrow'. Yellow suggests happiness and joy which can be related to children. I think Rietveld limited the dark colours used in this design as he wanted to create something fun and exciting for children to look at. The dominant colours of yellow and red make this fun and interesting to look at as they are very eye-catching colours.

Specifically this design, made me realise how important colour are. The way the yellow is displayed onto the product makes the users eye very attracted to it and it makes it stand out. I would also like my designs to stand out; therefore, it might be a good idea to dedicate my next blog posts to testing out different purple colours and commenting on them. 

Zig-Zag Chair (1934)

In the 1930s, a Dutch Department store asked Rietveld to design a chair for mass production which is unprecedent. This is when Rietveld came up with the idea of designing a Z shaped chair made up of joined planks. The four wooden tiles are combined to form the Z like shape using Dovetail joints. He used those joint to fix the backrest to the seat and he also used two wedges fitted with dowels to attach the angled support to the seat and base.
At the time, the idea of creating a chair without legs or arms was considered an ‘artists joke’ which is why it was a piece in Rietveld’s work which became very known to the public. This was a very simple solution to the problem which was given to him.
The chair creates an angular form which is very sturdy using the joints. The idea behind this design was to produce a chair made out of one continues plank. He started experimenting using material such as bent plywood and steel plate, however, he realised that solid wood was the most suitable to use. I find this information very important as I have the opportunity to explore the properties of the materials he used to see if they are suitable for my own design. 

This was the design that influenced the title of my project. Looking at this design, I first thought that this was designed using one single plank. Therefore, I came up with the idea of introducing simple items like this one that can easily fold. This product stands out to me a lot as it showcases how a simple solution can be effective and stand out from the rest of the market. Rietveld designs simple furniture that can be used to solve solutions, which is what I am aiming to do. I am definitely planning on researching the materials he used too to check if I can use some. 

After looking at these designs, I thought that it could be beneficial to roughly sketch out some products that I am interested in using his techniques. 

Both these designs are influenced by the De Stijl movement as it was a very significant part of his life. I added geometric colours and the traditional De Stijl colours to resemble his work. I decided to sketch out a chair, a cupboard and a couch as I am interested in exploring these products in my own project. 

This task was really challenging for me to complete as I was not familiar with any of the techniques and styles he uses. However, I decided to not overthink about this and let me be as creative as possible. I designed a chair which has geometric shapes but is asymmetrical, just like Rietveld's work. Surprisingly, I really like the outcome of this chair and I would like to explore geometric shapes with the project I am currently working on as I feel like it has great potential for good outcomes. 

Even though I feel like I went slightly crazy with the colours, I like the outcome of this cupboard. I decided to create a cupboard as it is one of my main elements in the project. I feel like I could've definitely added more shapes and make it more abstract like Rietveld's work. Adding more asymmetry to the design and making it more 'messy' could result to a better outcome. I definitely would like to explore more abstract shapes in my initial ideas to see where that takes me. 

This one was the roughest sketch which did not consist of any colour. I did not want to add colour as a means of keeping it plain and simple. This design was inspired by the Zig Zag chair which was the product that influence my major project title. I turned the zig zag chair into a couch and I really like the outcome of it. The concept of planks excites me, therefore, I am planning on looking into this concept in greater depth in my initial ideas.

This was a task I was very unfamiliar with, however, I am glad that I decided to complete this as it allowed me to be more creative and explore a different style of work. I am definitely planning on doing sketches related to the artist research in the future as it was very helpful and creative. 

Reflection: 

How did this inform my work and enhance my ideas? I commented on how each design influenced me separately, however, this was a very useful research in various aspects. I had the opportunity to look deeper into an artist that inspired my major project. I looked at both his life and work which was informative as I was presented with the chance to analyse it in depth. Looking at various materials, finishes and techniques was very useful as I noted down what I would like to research separately and what I want to consider for my major project.

This blog post made me realise how important research is to ensure that you are organised and have a clear understanding of what you want to do. In the upcoming blog posts, I will be sketching out my ideas, developing them and researching various aspects that enticed me from this research. 

 References: 

Gerrit Rietveld (n.d) Available at: https://www.famous-architects.org/gerrit-rietveld/ (Accessed: 02/02/21).

Suggest Architect (n.d.) Gerrit Rietveld Architect | Biography, Buildings, Projects and Facts. Available at: https://www.famous-architects.org/gerrit-rietveld/  (Accessed: 02/02/21)

Phaidon Press (2011) Gerrit Rietveld: The Architect and Designer. 13 Jan. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLHCYeswxuI  (Accessed: 02/02/21)

Levy, N. (2019) Gerrit Rietveld: Wealth of Sobriety reveals the architect's obscure projects. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/10/08/gerrit-rietveld-wealth-of-sobriety-architecture-books/  (Accessed: 02/02/21)

 

Griffiths, A. (2014) Dezeen's A-Zdvent Calendar: Zig Zag Chair by Gerrit Rietveld. Available at: https://www.dezeen.com/2014/12/24/a-zdvent-calendar-zig-zag-chair-by-gerrit-rietveld/  (Accessed: 02/02/21)