AN IMPORTANT TECHNICAL DESIGN SKETCH FOR A CEILING LIGHT , SECOND QUARTER OF THE 20TH CENTURY

Details

GERRIT THOMAS RIETVELD (1888-1964)
AN IMPORTANT TECHNICAL DESIGN SKETCH FOR A CEILING LIGHT , SECOND QUARTER OF THE 20TH CENTURY
ink on paper, double sided
4 x 4.3/4 in. (10 x 12 cm.)
signed R

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

Rietveld’s reductive design for a hanging lamp, a form that was used in several of his interiors of the early 1920s, expresses the purity and rigour of the De Stijl minimalism to absolute effect, and endures as one of the architect’s masterpieces. Due to the differing voltage systems then used in the Netherlands, Rietveld conceived of different versions of the lamp, with up to four tube lights, to correctly regulate the electricity. This drawing, which sketches out in detail the proportions and components of the lamp, is a version conceived for a power source of 220 volts (for details, see: P. Voge, The complete Rietveld furniture, Rotterdam, 1993, p.56)

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