Gerrit Thomas Rietveld

Daniele Baroni, The Furniture of Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Woodbury, NY, 1977, p. 159
Marijke Küper and Ida van Zijl, Gerrit Th. Rietveld, Utrecht, 1992, p. 285
Peter Vöge, The Complete Rietveld Furniture, Rotterdam, 1993, pp. 158-159
Ed van Hindt, Wim Rietveld Industrieel Ontwerper, Rotterdam, 1996, pp. 26 and 63-66
Barbara Laan, and André Koch, Collective Gispen Meubles: Lampen en Archivia in het NAi 1916-1980, Rotterdam, 1997, pp. 62, 125-126
Luca Dosi Delfini, The Furniture Collection, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2004, p. 321
Mondial:  Gispen & Gerrit Th. Rietveld, Culemborg, the Netherlands, 2006
Otakar Máčel and Sander Woertman, Chairs:  The Delft Collection, Rotterdam, 2008, pp. 62-63

The present model was designed in 1958 for inclusion in the Dutch pavilion at World Expo in Brussels.  This strikingly minimal design was the result of Gerrit Rietveld's collaboration with his son.  Wim later remarked "I tackled it with my father, and working together we complemented each other well.  He had a good eye for shapes and proportions, while I was good on the technical side.  So he was the designer and I was the one who made it."  Begun in 1956, this chair was designed to be stacked and linked in multiple. The "Mondial" chair received the compasso d'oro award at the 1957 Triennale in Milan. The original plan for Expo 1958 had included 105 "Mondial" chairs, however an alternate chair was selected prior to the chairs being produced and only five prototypes were exhibited. The prototype for the "Mondial" chair incorporated an aluminum seat, which was later modified by Gispen, and produced in polyester.  Given the complexity of the structure and costliness of the production, Gispen executed few examples of the chair. At the time of the design, Wim Rietveld was employed by Gispen as an industrial designer, and he later left the company due to disagreements over the production of this chair.  Examples of the "Mondial" chair are in the collections of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and the Centraal Museum, Utrecht.