Aldo van den Nieuwlaar
DESIGNER ARTIST, RESHAPING MINIMAL DUTCH DESIGN
Aldo van den Nieuwelaar (1944-2010) was a Dutch designer and interior decorator. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Breda. After his graduation in 1969 he founded his own design studio, stimulated by Benno Premsela. Inspired by Gerrit Rietveld, De Stijl and Bauhaus, he designed furniture, rugs, lamps, light sculptures with strict minimalist geometric shapes.
Van den Nieuwelaar was born in Tilburg in 1944. He studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Breda. Before founding his own studio in 1969, he worked for various architectural firms. Designer and architect Aldo van den Nieuwelaar designed lamps, furniture, cabinets and rugs. A year before he established himself as an independent designer, Aldo van den Nieuwelaar drew an innovative series of fluorescent lamps in 1968 in which the light source was the starting point. The shape of the light source determined the design for the various fixtures of the TC Series (Tubular Construction), with the TC–6 Circle Lamp as the best-known icon.
Van den Nieuwelaar’s designs can be recognized by their geometric shapes. He liked to work with a minimum of materials. Typical Van den Nieuwelaar furniture is characterized by its simplicity and clarity in form and material. He drew his inspiration from Rietveld and De Stijl, the Bauhaus of the 1920s. His now famous designs were featured in exhibitions at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Van den Nieuwelaar designed the iconic Amsterdam cupboard for Pastoe, known for its roller shutter cupboard door. The work of Aldo van den Nieuwelaar is included in various museum collections, including those of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Booijmans van Beuningen and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Van den Nieuwelaar has also achieved fame as an architect. For example, he was responsible for the design of the Waterlooplein metro station in Amsterdam. Light was a frequently seen theme in his oeuvre. Van den Nieuwelaar was responsible for the lighting design in various public spaces. In 1980, van den Nieuwelaar was awarded the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID Award) and in 1986 he received the Kho Liang Ie Prize. The Kho Liang le Prize was a Dutch prize for industrial design, awarded annually from 1979 to 2002 to a designer based in the Netherlands.
Iconic design
In 1968, Van den Nieuwelaar designed a series of innovative fluorescent lights in curved steel tubes, in white and chrome. An icon is TC6 which was a square shape with a circular fluorescent tube. Another famous design is the so-called ‘Amsterdammer’, a series of cabinets with shutters which he designend for Pastoe in 1973 and are still in production. Most of his items however were only produced in very limited productions, making these items rare. His designs have been exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
ALDO VAN DEN NIEUWLAAR
1944_Born in Tilburg (NL
2010_Dies on September 23th
Collections
| private collections, The Netherlands