The exuberant beauty of Amsterdamse School
21 June 2024
Amsterdamse School
We don’t want to boast, but the Netherlands has a wonderful rich history when it comes to architecture. One of our favourite movements is known as Amsterdamse School. Taking flight around 1910, this movement formed a bold respons to the sober aesthetic of Rationalism and is regarded as the Dutch answer to French Art Deco.
Dynamic slopes, spikes, angles, and decoration: thanks to the many (not uncontroversial) ties between Indonesia and the Netherlands at the time, the Amsterdamse School movement was strongly inspired by Indonesian culture and famed for its exuberant expressiveness.
The architects connected to Amsterdamse School — Michel de Klerk, Piet Kramer, and Hendrik Wijdeveld, to name a few — were determined to transcend the realm of architecture alone: besides buildings, the movement produced striking furniture with intricate details.
Numerous traces of the Amsterdamse School movement are still to be found in the streets of Amsterdam, depicted here alongside the 1920s Amsterdamse School Side Table Set and 1930s Amsterdamse School Pedestal available in our collection.
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Amsterdamse School chairs by architect Michel de Klerk
Michel de Klerk (1884-1923) is undoubtably the most prominent architect of the Amsterdamse School movement. Known as a ‘genius of form’, the eccentric details adorning his designs are of unparalleled originality and fantastic. You’d wonder whether to call his work furniture or sculpture.
Having spent his youth poor and hungry (he was the 17th child of a 78-year old diamond cutter, who died only 3 years later), the almost skeleton-like features in Michel de Klerk’s designs may be seen as symbolizing ribcages and spines in memory of his skin-over-bone childhood.
Consequently, sitting in a chair by his hand is in a way strangely satisfying for both the seated one as the chair itself, beckoning to be ‘filled’, and marvellously comfortable.
Michel de Klerk’s best kept designs were made for ‘t Woonhuys, a well-known furniture firm. The chairs available at KADER DESIGN were designed in 1916-1917 for a dining room, as illustrated above by Michel de Klerk himself. A number of the same chairs are part of the design collection of Centraal Museum Utrecht.
Archive images © Stadsarchief Amsterdam:
Het Schip (1917) by Michel de Klerk, photo C.W.J. Schorteldoek (1)
Spaarndammerplantsoen 15-17 by Michel de Klerk (2)
Detail bridge Keizersgracht by Piet Kramer, photo Han van Gool (3)
Presentation photo ‘t Woonhuys with chairs by Michel de Klerk (4)