PERSBERICHT Klaarhamer according to Rietveld

PERSBERICHT
Utrecht, december 2014
Klaarhamer according to Rietveld
Data: 20 December 2014 to 22 March 2015
Locatie: Centraal Museum, Nicolaaskerkhof 10, Utrecht
Piet Klaarhamer was both a mentor and a major example for Gerrit Rietveld.
Nevertheless, Klaarhamer fell into obscurity, while his pupil went on to become
world famous. But for Rietveld, Klaarhamer always remained an important figure.
Following Klaarhamer’s death in 1954, Rietveld wrote an In Memoriam in which he
described him as a craftsman, frontrunner and innovator.
Respectively 50 and 60 years after Rietveld and Klaarhamer passed away, Centraal
Museum presents the exhibition Klaarhamer according to Rietveld, portraying the
nature and dynamics of their relationship. With around 60 furniture pieces and an
extensive selection of designs, drawings and documents by both Klaarhamer and
Rietveld, the reciprocal influence of the two designers becomes apparent. The
exhibition furthermore depicts Klaarhamer’s relationship with other artists of De
Stijl movement. With a wonderful selection of his paintings, the focus is
particularly on Klaarhamer’s close friend, Bart van der Leck. Klaarhamer
according to Rietveld is on display from 20 December 2014 to 25 March 2015 in
Centraal Museum.
Piet Klaarhamer (1874 – 1954)
Piet Klaarhamer was a perfectionist. A designer of furniture and architecture,
even the smallest details were designed according to his principles: visible
construction methods and the use of honest, simple materials. In the first two
decades of his career, his work was met with mounting acclaim. Klaarhamer was a
pioneer, in search of a suitable, contemporary form of craftsmanship, and his
work appealed to many. His work and career reached a high point in 1919, when his
work was commissioned by the leading industrialist Cornelis Bruynzeel. Together
with Vilmos Huszár he designed the well-known Bruynzeel boy’s bedroom for the
family home ‘De Arendshoeve’. The year 1919 would not just be his year of glory,
however; in fact it also marked the downturn in his career. For in that same
year, the prominent art journal De Stijl chose to portray not his work, but
Rietveld’s reclining chair (which would later be painted to become the famous
Red-blue chair). Outshone by his pupil and for a lack of recognition and of
Post address
Postbus 2106
3500 GC Utrecht
Museum address
Nicolaaskerkhof 10
3512 XC Utrecht
Visitor address
Agnietenstraat 3
3512 XA Utrecht
Contact
T +31 (0)30 236 2362
centraalmuseum.nl
Note to editor:
For more information, please contact Marije Douma via
[email protected] or 030-2362313.
clients, in 1933 Klaarhamer withdrew from his profession and even left the city
of Utrecht. He devoted the remaining two decades of his life to philosophy, to
finally die in virtual obscurity in 1954.
Gerrit Thomas Rietveld
Red and blue chair, 1918
P. J. C. Klaarhamer
Blue chair (1906)
Photo: Ernst Moritz
Photo: Ivar Pel
Reciprocal influence
In the fourteen years between the summit of his career and the end of his work as
a designer, the master increasingly started to look up to his pupil. Klaarhamer
became inspired by Rietveld. Until his premature retirement in the 1930s,
Klaarhamer mainly created designs in an idiom influenced by the De Stijl
movement. Yet before the pupil turned master, Klaarhamer clearly had a strong
influence on the young Rietveld. Early furniture designs by Rietveld from the
first decade of the 20th century bear a strong resemblance to Klaarhamer’s
furniture. Klaarhamer’s fondness for simple furniture with a clearly visible
construction and an architecture that is designed starting from the interior,
continued to influence Rietveld throughout his career. Although Klaarhamer has
gone down in history as a furniture designer and a fairly accomplished architect
who mingled with artists of De Stijl movement, his work signifies much more than
that. His unusual career and remarkable friendships add a fresh perspective to
the innovations that are generally attributed wholly to De Stijl. Klaarhamer
indeed deserves to be described as Rietveld did: as a craftsman, frontrunner and
innovator.
Post address
Postbus 2106
3500 GC Utrecht
Museum address
Nicolaaskerkhof 10
3512 XC Utrecht
Visitor address
Agnietenstraat 3
3512 XA Utrecht
Contact
T +31 (0)30 236 2362
centraalmuseum.nl
Note to editor:
For more information, please contact Marije Douma via
[email protected] or 030-2362313.

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