05/21/08
Text: Donari Braxton
Iconic Finds Holland is a somewhat supernatural retrospective serving as M2L's Design Week trophy case. Supernatural, because though most of the designs date back to the early 20s, they’re newly manufactured (from original specifications, though using state-of-the-art techniques) and have for the first time been released to the American market. And through the sublimely modernist-uprisings of early twentieth century Dutch design that it evidences, the show proves itself all the more eerie. Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, the asynchronous design spook in question, was dabbling in sleek, obtuse K-form chairs long before objectified minimalism hit the scene (see his Mondial chair series), and his Berlin Chair, designed in 1923 for an exhibition in Berlin, uses asymmetry and flat-panel constructions that even today seem revolutionary—proving, for what it’s worth, it’s never been harder to get out of Dutch.
