Gerrit Rietveld's Lesser-Known Houses Captured in New Photography Exhibition

The Center for Architecture in New York is hosting 'Gerrit Rietveld: Wealth of Sobriety', an exhibition of photographs by Arjan Bronkhorst, curated with architectural historian Barry Bergdoll. Bronkhorst spent two years locating and photographing 15 of the nearly 100 houses Rietveld designed over four decades, many of which were private commissions with little public attention. The exhibition, based on Bronkhorst's 2018 monograph, highlights the architect's lesser-known residential works and his philosophy of 'wealth of sobriety', which urged rejection of extravagance. Bronkhorst's photographs focus on details like window latches, stair treads, and the effects of light on unfinished wood, as well as the current residents of the houses, a departure from typical architectural photography. Notable images include a 1922 hanging lamp in the Schröder House, the Zig-Zag chair, and a wall-mounted fixture in Ilpendam. A separate section is devoted to the Parkhurst House in Wakeman, Ohio, Rietveld's only detached house outside the Netherlands, commissioned by Charles Percy Parkhurst. Rietveld never saw the completed house due to his 1955 denial of entry to the US over alleged communist sympathies. The exhibition runs through September 2.