Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 7: Chair 788 by Garry Knox Bennett
There is no comment by Garry on his web page. I would say a bit wobbly and a bit Panton
Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 6: Great Granny by Garry Knox Bennett
Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 5 – Chas by Garry Knox Bennett
Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 5 – Chas by Garry Knox Bennett
In an interview with Stefano Catalani(SC) Garry (GBK) explains:
SC: Chas Rietveld #5 is one of my favorite pieces. There is such an integration and compatibility. The quintessential elements of Mackintosh design are so well integrated with the Zig-Zag Chair . The two designs come together in the simplest way, almost obvious!
GKB: Yeah, that is pretty clever, isn’t it? The white bar goes all the way to the base, and that makes a real strong chair. You could sit a 500-lb. guy in that chair.
SC: You gave a technical and psychological solution to the only concern one has when one sits in the original Zig-Zag Chair —
GKB: Oh, of course, that it’s going to hold.
SC: What do you think of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s designs for furniture?
GKB: Another architect making furniture for Christ’s sake. It’s elegant, beautiful stuff, and is probably uncomfortable as hell. You know, there isn’t an architect in the world who can make chairs. They don’t understand chairs. You know? I haven’t seen an architect chair yet that’s worth a shit…well other than Le Corbusier and Charles Eames…
SC: And yet you had already paid homage to Mackintosh in the past.
GKB: Yeah. The Mackintosh Bench .
SC: It’s interesting, the first thing one would look for when looking at the bench would be any obvious reference to the austere elements of Mackintosh design: the high back, the grid, or the semicircular forms–
GKB: The colors! Mackintosh loved mauve. The bench had mauve. And mauve is the color I painted inside the square holes of the white bar on the back of Chas Rietveld .
Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 4 – Granny by Garry Knox Bennett
Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 3 – Duncan by Garry Knox Bennett
Rietveld Zig Zag Variation 3 – Duncan by Garry Knox Bennett
In an interview with Stefano Catalani (SC) Garry (GBK) explains:
SC: After the Shaker-inspired Old Ladderback and New Ladderback, you made the Duncan Rietveld, which is inspired by Duncan Phyfe [Ed. A famous American furniture designer. Note to self: find out if he is related to the famous Fife yacht designers].
GKB: And that’s an easy shape to do. There’s no carving in it, you know. I tried to find somebody who could carve me the back splat, the cherubs. I wanted something really gaudy. I found one guy who would do it, but then he asked, ” What are you going to do with it?” I explained to him and he didn’t want his work messed with. So, I could do it, if I could learn how to sharpen a chisel.
SC: You say that very often.
GKB: Yeah, I know, but they’re hard to sharpen. Some people can sharpen them real quick. Wendell Castle can sharpen a chisel in about five minutes. I could carve something, but it would take forever , and the whole idea here as in most of my work, is not to lavish a lot of time on this stuff. We’re just talking ideas here.