THE RIETVELD PAVILIONBEYOND DE STIJL. GERRIT RIETVELD AND THE 1950s.

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BEYOND DE STIJL GERRIT RIETVELD AND THE 1950S.THE RIETVELD PAVILIONThis year the Netherlands are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the De Stijl art movement.Museums and other cultural institutions in the Netherlands will offer various exhibitions and programs on the theme ‘Mondrian to Dutch Design’.

THE RIETVELD PAVILION AMERSFOORTThe Amersfoort ‘Rietveldpaviljoen’ is an art pavilion designed by the famous architect Gerrit Rietveld (June 24, 1888 - June 26, 1964) and is the first art hall in the Netherlands. The pavilion, built in 1959, is seen as one of his most important later works and a respected and perfect example of functional post-war architecture. The pavilion consists of plain, almost Spartan, lines and stands out for its spatial qualities. It was built on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the city of Amersfoort and follows the style of the Modern Movement. Rietveld also designed a lectern, display cases and other furniture for the use of the building as an exhibition space.

VILLA ZONNEHOF The Rietveld Pavilion ‘Zonnehof’ is named after Villa Zonnehof. In the nineteen twenties the area around Zonnehof was almost entirely filled up with villas and gardens. It looked like a residential area with a green character. Villa Zonnehof, built around 1900, was demolished in 1969. Amersfoort’s mayor Hermen Molendijk (1946-1961) was a strong propagandist of modernism, also when it concerned the new Art Hall. He asked architect Gerrit Rietveld to build a modern pavilion as a central space for all cultural initiatives and as a mature exhibition space with a strong focus on light, air, space as absolute requirements. The construction was realized in 1959, when Amersfoort celebrated its 700th anniversary as a city. For nearly fifty years, the pavilion served as a modern Art Hall and Center for Modern Art and was an important cultural anchorage of international modern art, with exhibitions of sculptures, paintings and jewelry.

Interior Rietveld Pavilion, picture Jan Versnel

GERARD (GERRIT) THOMAS RIETVELDFurniture maker, interior designer and architect Gerard (Gerrit) Thomas Rietveld (1888-1964) was a one of the Members De Stijl. He also did graphic work, such as posters and covers for magazines. Rietveld was trained to become a furniture maker in his father’s workshop in Utrecht, where worked after his primary school years. Rietveld disliked the traditional furniture being made in his father’s workshop and decided to work for some time as a designer for jeweler Carel Begeer. Between 1904 and 1908 he took evening classes with the progressive architect Piet Klaarhamer. Rietveld was fascinated by modern designers such as H.P. Berlage and Frank Lloyd Wright, and around 1918 he began making experimental furniture. Among them was the predecessor of the world famous ‘Red and Blue Chair , a coloured slats armchair.

Creating furniture was like experimenting for Rietveld - the first ‘Red and Blue Chair’ Rietveld designed for himself. His friend and architect Robert van’t Hoff advised him to get in touch with Theo van Doesburg, who had started a magazine for modern art style called ‘De Stijl’. In July 1918 editor van Doesburg published an article about one of Rietveld’s chairs in De Stijl and in September an article on the slats arm chair followed. By designing furniture for his six children and for the children of clients, Rietveld had the freedom of experimenting more. It was precisely this children’s furniture that were his first designs in colour, and not long after he designed his famous Red and Blue Chair. Rietveld’s furniture was not just modern by appearance, but also inexpensive and easy to produce, so that the work of the craftsman was facilitated considerably. Yet Rietveld didn’t feel the need to change the taste of the common people.

Portrait, picture Anonymous

POST-WAR FUNCTIONALISM

Around 1930 Rietveld joined the ‘Nieuwe Bouwen’, which is the Dutch adaptation of the Internationale Stijl movement. He designed worker’s houses in 1930-1932 in the Wiener Werkbundsiedlung in Vienna, and terraced houses in collaboration with Truus Schröder in Utrecht. During the Second World War Rietveld continued to designing illegally , for he refused to register to the ‘Kulturkammer’ which the German occupying forces had impelled. In that same year he designed a one piece molded plastic chair.

After a difficult time without much commisions, De Stijl became populair again in the 1950. Rietveld received commissions to design government buildings. In 1961 Rietveld Van Dillen Van Tricht bureau was founded by Gerrit Rietveld, together with architects Joan van Dillen and Johan van Tricht.

Werkbundsiedlung, Wenen, picture Anonymous

Amersfoort in the 50s, picture Anonymous

EXHIBITION ‘BEYOND DE STIJL. GERRIT RIETVELD AND THE 1950.’ IN THE RIETVELD PAVILJON

The importance and cultural heritage of the Rietveld Pavilion is not to be underestimated. FASadE, the center for architecture of Amersfoort, will initiate an exhibition in the Rietveld Pavilion, in line with the meaning and importance of the pavilion and of its architect, and focusing on the 1950s.Rietveld’s international and national significance will be shown in a broad range of various perspectives.

EXHIBITION: ‘Beyond De Stijl. Gerrit Rietveld and the 1950s.‘

EXHIBITION PERIOD: 15 th September till 8 th of January 2018

OPENING HOURS: daily 11:00 – 17:00 hrs. Closed on Mondays

EXHIBITION LOCATION: Rietveldpaviljoen, Zonnehof 8 in Amersfoort

TICKETS: 8 Euros

WEBSITE www.fasade.nl

PRESS PREVIEW: tuesday 12th of September 2017, 4 p.m. On 12th of September 1959 the Rietveld pavilion was opened!

MORE INFORMATION: + 31 6 20983300 Johanna van der Werff, director of FASadE and curator of the exhibition

Interior Rietveld Pavilion, picture Rick van Doleweerd

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