RED-BLUE CHAIR, 1919
In 1919 Rietveld designed the ‘red-blue’ chair, which at the time was created from brown stained wood.
That same year the chair was published in the magazine De Stijl. Rietveld wrote that he wanted to make a piece of furniture that stands freely in the space, where the shape wins over the material and that is easily produce by machines. In the same commentary, Van Doesburg called the chair: “… a slender creature of space (…) unintentional, but unmerciful processing of open spaces”.
Rietveld achieved the spatiality with, among other things, continuous slats and connections with dowels.
The bevelled, later rectangular side panels disappeared with the versions from 1923 onwards.
In that year he painted the chair in the well-known primary De Stijl colours. That version could be seen in Utrecht at the exhibition ‘The Practical Housewife’. Possibly this exhibition was the direct cause for the colours of the chair. The exhibition interior, designed by Rietveld as a whole, may have led to the chair being matched to the space and in particular to the work of Van der Leck, who worked with primary colours as well.
This slatted armchair, as it was also called, was supplied by Rietveld in many colours, fitting in with the interior and according to the client’s wishes. For example, he made a monochrome red chair for himself and for the writer Til Brugman a completely white version, as part of an interior with colour design by Vilmos Huszár.
For Charley Toorop he made a sea-green and a pink version, both monochrome, and a grey version with yellow edges. Paul Lemon and Peter Alma were given a black chair with white edges.