Zig-zag chair

The Dutch furniture designer and architect Gerrit Rietveld is considered a pioneer of modern design. Born in Utrecht in 1888, he worked in his father’s furniture workshop from the age of eleven, later studying technical draughtsmanship at the Utrecht Museum of Applied Arts. In 1917 he opened his own furniture workshop.

Rietveld went on to become a leading figure in the de Stijl movement, which promoted geometric abstraction in art and design through the use of rectangular shapes and lines. Rietveld best articulated the views of this movement through his Blue and Red chair, designed in 1917, which featured structured square planes in bold primary colours. He continued his homage to simple silhouettes and shapes in his 1934 Zig-zag chair. Designed to look as though it is one ‘folded’ piece of wood, the profile is a single line in space. The Gallery’s Zig-zag chair is constructed of pine, with dovetail joints, and is a demonstration of the simple lines promoted by modernist ideas of truth to materials, without unnecessary ornamentation. It comes from Rietveld’s own workshop and was made by his carpenter, Gerard van de Groenekan.

Rebecca Evans, Curator of Decorative Arts & Design