Gerrit Rietveld designed his last chair for jeweller Steltman’s shop at the age of 75. With this design he once again proved his status as a pioneering designer. The chair owes its name to the The Hague jeweller and royal purveyor Steltman who commissioned Rietveld in 1963 to rebuild and furnish his shop at Noordeinde in The Hague.
The two mirrored chairs, placed in front of a showcase with jewellery, appealed directly to the imagination. From these chairs customers were able to select their jewellery and wedding rings. This way the chairs also acquired a symbolic meaning: two separate, opposite forms that together form a unity. The asymmetrical chair, which produces a surprising image from every angle, is made up entirely of lines and planes. The Steltman is typical of Rietveld’s design ideas and is now a true design classic!
Gerrit Rietveld's Steltman Chair is a furniture like a sculpture. It features an asymmetrical configuration of identical wooden planks juxtaposed vertically and horizontally into a well-balanced composition. The chair’s dynamic sculptural form does not depend on new technologies or materials but on the artistic ideals of the De Stijl movement. This influential group of artists joined forces in Holland during World War I (1914–1918) around the monthly journal De Stijl. Whether in painting, sculpture, typography, design, or architecture, the work of De Stijl artists adhered to three prevailing principles: independent planar and linear elements; primary colors; and asymmetrical compositions.
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