Steltman Chair

Gerrit Rietveld's Steltman Chair is furniture as 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. Rietveld was an early member of De Stijl, and toward the end of his life, he returned to the movement's basic tenets when he designed this chair for the Steltman Jewelry Store.