Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 2: Modern Era (1850–1949)
1918
Red and Blue Chair by Gerrit Rietveld

A canonical artefact of art history and one of the most important pieces of furniture ever built, the chair, designed in 1918 and painted about 1923, composed of 13 square-profiled battens, two rectangular panels and two armrests, was stripped of its volume to emphasize functionality. It stands as a representation of the De Stijl movement’s principles of abstract simplicity and functionality.
Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random, fact-checked September 2026.
Sources
People
Movements
De Stijl
Filed under
- Ideas
- abstraction, design, furniture, geometry
- People
- Gerrit Rietveld
- Works
- Red and Blue Chair
- Organisations
- De Stijl
Echoes across time
- 1980 · Divisibility I by Manfred Mohr
- 1974 · Vera Molnár Begins her Iconic (Des)Ordres Series
- 1973 · France Hosts International Computer Art Events
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- Timeline Ch 2—Modern Era with Kate Vass — listen with transcript on Le Random (20 Jul 2023, 58 min). Chapter 2’s episode. Apple Podcasts · Spotify