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Gerrit Thomas Rietveld (1888-1964) learnt the craft of cabinetmaking from his father, in Utrecht ( Neth.). Through taking classes and a great deal of self-education he developed into the world-famous architect who lived to see his career crowned with an honorary degree from the Technical University at Delft (Neth.). In 1919 he joined the ‘De Stijl’ movement of, among others, Mondriaan and Van der Leck. Within this group he found recognition for his ideas on pure, functional forms and use of the primary colours red, blue and yellow. Although he created several dozens of furniture pieces, buildings and other designs, Rietveld is generally associated with one chair, his famous Red-Blue (1918), and with one specific house, the Rietveld-Schröder house (1924). However, Rietveld left a far more extensive oeuvre, comprising no fewer than 215 designs for furniture such as chairs, tables and cabinets, 232 designs for buildings and 240 designs for objects of various nature.
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