Beyond De Stijl: Gerrit Rietveld's 1950s Retrospective in Amersfoort

A retrospective exhibition titled 'Beyond De Stijl. Gerrit Rietveld and the 1950s' will open on September 16, 2017, at the Rietveld Pavilion in Amersfoort, running until January 8, 2018. The show focuses on Rietveld's output during the 1950s, a decade that marked a revival for the architect and designer after a period of decline. This resurgence was sparked by his participation in the 1951 De Stijl group exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, leading to new public commissions. The pavilion itself, designed by Rietveld in 1959 for Amersfoort's 700th anniversary, exemplifies the functionalist architecture of Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), a German movement he embraced after breaking with De Stijl in 1928. Other major 1950s commissions include the Netherlands Pavilion at the 1953 Venice Biennale, the art academies of Amsterdam and Arnhem, and a press room for UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The exhibition also serves as a restoration project for the Rietveld Pavilion, which had fallen into neglect but is now being meticulously restored for the occasion.