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Berlin Chair

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Subscription Plan

Free

Style

Modernist, De Stijl

Brand

Rietveld Originals

Required

Base Game

Creator

Meinkatz

about this product

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.

about the designer

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Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Gerrit Rietveld was a pioneering Dutch designer and architect whose work reshaped the language of modern design through a radical pursuit of clarity, structure, and abstraction. Closely associated with the De Stijl movement in the early 20th century, he translated its principles into both furniture and architecture, creating pieces that functioned as three-dimensional compositions of line, plane, and color. Iconic works such as the Red Blue Chair and the Schröder House embody his vision of space as an open, dynamic system rather than a closed form. Throughout his career, Rietveld continually evolved beyond De Stijl, embracing more functional, economical, and socially driven approaches to design, producing furniture that was accessible, rational, and often constructed with simple materials. His ability to move between artistic experimentation and practical innovation established him as a central figure in modernism, and his legacy continues to influence contemporary architecture, furniture design, and the broader trajectory of Dutch design.

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