The red-and-blue chair

One of the highlights in Rietveld's oeuvre is ‘The red-and-blue chair’. He designed the chair, composed of two panels and several slats of wood, in 1918. He painted the chair in primary colours in 1923. Several similar but non-identically executed copies have been made over the years. Rietveld wanted to create a handsome chair that does not fill the space it occupies but rather keeps it transparent. Furthermore, he wanted to design a chair that could be machine-made. In the end, the chair was never mass-produced: there was not enough interest for its design as it was not comfortable to sit in. However, the red-and-blue chair became a worldwide icon of everything radical and innovative in the world of art, design and architecture.