Page 50 - Studio International - April 1972
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Le Corbusier, was most concerned with human the frame of the cube. And a great generosity of significance of a lonely and freakish forerunner.
comfort—look at his deep settees, his luxurious spirit is a manifestation of this simplicity of But it is only in the last two or three years, with
seats, his generous sit-in fireplaces. Compare outlook. the renewal of interest in material-as-structure
such things with Rietveld's zig-zag chairs. Such a spirit is rare to find in Rietveld's rather than abstract gestalt, as the framework
Furniture should presuppose comfort; so should work. Look at the extraordinary Szekely for advanced sculpture, that the full extent,
buildings. House, for example. How did it get that variety and quality of Rietveld's oeuvre could
In Rietveld's architecture, though, this sense peculiar roof ? The onlooker would be entitled come to assume its present importance. What
of discomfort prevails. The same awkwardness to believe that the original design had been has served to bury Rietveld until this moment,
that is evident in the zig-zag chair (at any altered later in a conversion by some local namely his reputation as designer and architect,
minute it might collapse) is evident in the builder. One can hardly believe one's eyes. The as a relatively minor figure in a particular aspect
complications of the façades to the Schroder Smit House (a project 1949) is every bit as of the modern movement, and, it would seem,
House, in the odd bits of balconies that are too strange and certainly quite unnecessarily Rietveld's own acceptance of this designated
narrow and enclosed to enjoy (thus meeting complicated and confused—a hotchpotch of role, now gives the work an accumulated purity,
the abstractionist's aims and decorative ends); different roof shapes and materials. A good integrity and force. For modern sculpture was
and in the fussiness of the window design— architect avoids problems; and a good building (and still is) making: and Rietveld was primarily
Rietveld doesn't appear to have known where is like an argument that has been properly and continuously a maker, concerned with the
to stop. Study the plan. On the first floor the considered—the meaning must be clear, the simultaneous aesthetic and structural ordering
traditional divisions have gone and this gives an method of expression exact. But it is not essential of particular materials (and from this point in
openness which one associates with the planning to look at the work of men like Wright and time, the de Stijl aesthetic seems only to have
of the time. But again there is a mixture of Le Corbusier to seek reassurance; nor, for that been one possibility among many, relevant
interests at work, all of which are crammed into matter, at the work of architects like Jacobsen mainly, in the construction of furniture, to the
a single space, all of which in some way conflict : and Utzon —yet how refreshingly direct their use of rectangular wooden sections).
beds, a piano, cooking, eating, a lavatory, a designs are. It is quite enough, for instance, to `The chair', which might at first glance seem
bathroom : all the appearances of a modern look look at the kind of buildings the Danes are such a constraint, in fact operates as the agent
at living. The Schröders, of course, clearly turning out month by month. For what is it of abstract invention. Instead of working within
asked for some form of open planning. If they about Danish architecture in particular that the sculpture idea, the figure idea, Rietveld
did, one suspects that the architect's scheme makes someone like Rietveld seem so freely and unselfconsciously works within the
forced them into a situation for which they outrageously contrary, so self-conscious—and chair idea. What a contrast with the past-
hadn't bargained. The plan strikes one as a too English architects so frankly bad ? haunted contemporary sculpture of, for example,
literal interpretation of clients' requirements, It may all boil down to matters concerning Laurens, Giacometti, Gonzalez. The chair has
as a form of circulation diagram that never proportion—the size of windows and doors, the all the abstract components of an abstract and
reached a further and more profound stage. dimensions of panes of glass; or an unerring natural sculpture far beyond their reach—
Every part of the twenty-four hour cycle of sense of scale—the scale of the place into which qualities of core, axis and direction: the self-
existence is piled into one space : there is no the building will be set, and the relationship evident relation of structure to material:
privacy; no escape from the washing-up of the established between the scale of the building proportion, level, inside/outside, gravity, size,
night before; no chance to relax over breakfast and that of the human being. These two— actual strength—all those properties which
without first making the beds. Compare this proportion and scale—are then supported by derive from its function as bearer, supporter,
arrangement with Le Corbusier's for Ozenfant. great economy of materials, of shape, of detail : container, reflector of the human figure. If
There, again, all the movements of day and little else. Nature grows up naturally round Rietveld had merely called our attention to
night life occur in one space, in one cube. But Danish buildings, and those qualities of comfort these properties it would have been enough.
the business of the day happened on one floor and calm that are essential to the pleasure and But each chair is for him a new beginning, an
and the business of the night happened on a enjoyment of a place follow on. Nothing of this adventure with material, form, space,
triangle that bisected the cube—on a balcony is evident in Rietveld's work—this must be said. proportion, structure and, finally, expression,
bedroom. The needs of sleep and work were But then his ambitions were larger than his that far out-distances the original concept.
separated, and the muddle of the day could, if intellectual and imaginative means. In such Each attempt is utterly different, wholly
only for a few hours, be left behind. circumstances, it is impossible to produce an autonomous, a chair only and necessarily for
The combination of separation of use and integrated work, a simple work of happiness. the purpose of recognition; it may function as
the triangular form inside the cube emphasized Rietveld seems too distracted by his own such, be comfortable even (the wear on several
the extent of the space. But important, too, was dilemmas and inner conflicts to achieve such a pieces gives evidence of long and happy use);
the simplicity with which the elements were thing. What was architecture ? Was it painting ? it may be easily and cheaply reproduced in
handled. Complications in planning, as in detail, Was it furniture ? Was it symbolism ? Was it quantity : but these are incidental virtues,
reduce one's appreciation of space. A room sculpture—or Cubism ? Surely it wasn't merely insistence on which withdraws
which is cluttered with furniture, objects, making buildings ? What we see reflected in his acknowledgement of each piece as not only
curtains, rugs and so on contracts in size—shape designs is the frustration and unhappiness of `hand-made', but eye-made, mind-made by
and form become submerged by an overlay of plain indecision. q an artist whose modesty of purpose was the
possessions. In the sphere of design, this matters. STEPHEN GARDINER essential component of a uniquely liberated
And in Rietveld's work just such complications imagination. The exhibition at the Hayward
show on the outside as well, as the Schroder A note on Rietveld as a sculptor should enable a few of us to repay with interest a
House demonstrates. A typical Wright house The Rietveld exhibition at the Hayward Gallery debt compounded over fifty years' neglect; the
like Taliesin I (191o) was made of extremely is reviewed above, but I would like to remark comparison with the adjacent artiness of Miró
simple elements—a huge roof that was the timeliness of the show, and the revelation of and Rothko might lead a few open-minded
protective, a podium that stressed the ground Rietveld as one of the handful of great masters visitors to question the stratification and
plane, glass that melted into the shadows of modern sculpture. hardening of reputation in the tree of modern
between these strong horizontals. A typical Rietveld has long and generally been known art. More than a few dead branches, strapped
Le Corbusier house like the Villa Savoye (193o) here as the designer of THE (`Red-Blue') chair, and propped by heavy investment, are obscuring
was similarly conceived from simple elements— which, with the advent of the ground-based the view of the distant but lively green. q
the discovery, release and control of space within sculpture of the early sixties, assumed the WILLIAM TUCKER
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