Games Table
Designer
Henri Clemens van de Velde
(Belgian, 1863 - 1957)
CultureBelgian
Dateca. 1906
MediumOak with brass
DimensionsOverall: 31 1/2 × 22 1/16 × 22 1/16 inches (80.01 × 56.03 × 56.03 cm)
Credit LineGift of Roberto Polo in honor of the 75th anniversary of The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
Object number2009.7
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionThe table rests on four legs, tapering slightly from top to bottom and bowing outward. The four legs are connected with a double X-shaped stretcher of slender, arching members. The legs attach to a square piece of wood upon which rest at a perpendicular angle two pieces of wood joined in an X-shape, mimicking the table's stretcher. These two vertically oriented pieces of wood with curved ends partition the flat piece into four equal triangles. The table top is formed of a piece of square wood and four triangular pieces of wood which are hinged to the square piece. When opened, the triangles form a square table top that is twice as large as when the table top is closed.Gallery LabelRather than mimicking historical styles, this chandelier and games table look toward modern, abstracted design. The chandelier’s simple brass tubing and flat wire swirl and turn, moving our eyes around without rest. Henry van de Velde also embraced new technologies, seen in the chandelier’s prominent display of electric lightbulbs. The architect and designer was never interested in recreating realistic floral or animal forms, but rather in simplifying and abstracting nature to expressions of geometry, movement, and line, characteristic of the Belgian Art Nouveau.
With Galerie Historismus, Paris by 2009;
Gift of Roberto Polo to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2009.
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2018.72.50
