Gerrit Rietveld, a Dutch cabinetmaker turned architect, is a designer associated with the De Stijl movement, which is often linked to the rigor of total abstraction.

Yet the “aesthetic of a purified vision,” in Piet Mondrian’s words, accommodates the striking visual impact of primary colors. This is evident in Rietveld’s finalized Red Blue Chair. This remarkable sculptural chair, created in 1918, was made from 17 pieces of wood, demonstrating an economy of materials rarely seen at the time.

The austere Zig Zag chair of 1932, made from four wooden planks, embodies a rationalist aesthetic. Its substance comes from pure forms—squares and rectangles—while humorously realizing Von Doesburg’s aim of breaking horizontal and vertical tensions with oblique lines, creating an apparent card-house instability.

In 1935, Rietveld followed with the more comfortable Utrecht Chair. Originally designed for a department store and named after his hometown, where he had built his architectural masterpiece, the Schröder House, in 1924.