Rietveld

A side-view of Rietveld’s Zig-Zag chair in black is presented over the full height of this poster. This has been created in one rough brushstroke, with part of it overlapping the architect’s name, which is printed in red stenciled letters. Pale brown is visible around the edges of the black brushstroke. The chair was presumably printed in the color of wood during the first print run. The Zig-Zag chair is used here as a graphic element. Positioned in this way, the image lends depth to the composition. The artist created this poster for the Rietveld exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in 1959. Otto Treumann and Wim Crouwel also made posters for the same exhibition. Bons’s method is intuitive: he sticks, rips, scrawls and prefers to work with letters that are drawn, painted or torn from paper. His use of color is often restricted to primary colors. He succeeds in making a powerful image using only minimal means.