The Artisan's Lineage and the Birth of Modernity In the heart of Utrecht, where the scent of fresh sawdust and the rhythmic strike of a mallet once defined the daily rhythm, Gerrit Thomas Rietveld began his journey. Born in 1888 to a master joiner, his early years were steeped in the tactile language of wood and the disciplined precision of craftsmanship. This foundational intimacy with material was not merely a childhood memory but the very bedrock upon which he would later build a revolution. Before he ever sought to deconstruct form into abstract planes, Rietveld mastered the physical real…