In 1923 Gerrit Rietveld designed his iconic Berlin chair for the ‘Juryfreie Kunstschau’ in Berlin. In addition to the Red-Blue chair, this is one of Rietveld’s most famous chairs. In 1960 Rietveld designed two new versions of the chair for the boardroom of the Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. In this second version, a cushion was used and one of the chairs (that of the chairman) was fitted with a higher backrest. Rietveld built the Berlin chair from eight separate planks. The avant-garde design and iconic lines of the chair represent Rietveld’s basic principles as a member of the De Stijl art movement, which he joined in 1919. The chair is made of solid oak panels and is lacquered in white, black and grey. The wood structure is retained, so that the chair looks very characteristic and atmospheric.