Chairs, Chair Design and Chair Designers
Originally this was the third part of our mini series about Theo van Doesburg (click for part 1 and part 2).
However there is doubt that these chairs were designed by Theo van Doesburg himself. One of our readers pointed out the threesome was designed by Thijs Rinsema, a friend of Van Doesburg.
As we have the habit of publishing one type of chair per post and I had 3 photos of a chair designed by Theo van Doesburg I rather share my second photo immediately after the first post about him.
Theo van Doesburg is probably, like the Guardian said last year at the occasion of a Van Doesburg Overview in London’s Tate, ” The Forgotten artist of the avant garde“.
He was born as Christian Emil Marie Küpper in 1883.
Together with Piet Mondriaan (or Mondrian) who he met in 1915, he was one of the founders of De Stijl in 1917, both a magazine and an art movement.
He worked 2 years in Weimar at the Bauhaus under Walter Gropius and with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Also clear is that he influenced (and got influenced by) both Piet Mondiaan (or Mondrian) and Gerrit Rietveld who were members of De Stijl as well.
I took this photo in December 2007 when I visited Museum Belvédère near Heereveen, about 1.5 hr driving north east of Amsterdam.
Recently I’ve done a lot of other things than posting here. I thank Julia profoundly for keeping the blog afloat in the meantime.
Last week I was in Vienna where I had discovered this Chair Scale in a pharmacy on a former trip. I took a photo and that was horribly unfocused. This time I was able to take a better one with the kind permission of the apothecary.
The pharmacy has a long history. I doesn’t seem to have a website, but it does have a (German)Wikipedia entry under it’s impressive name Zum Goldenen Hirschen (Apotheke)
Whenever I see a chair designed by Jean Prouve I think:”Hm, sturdy but not very elegant”, but this fauteuil de grand repos (or lounge chair) is an exception. It is made by the German Tecta company and has been sold at an auction of the Munich, Germany based, auction house Von Zezschwitz. The Hammer Price was Euro 900,00 or $ 1,269.00 on April 15, 2011.