Barbara Kruger is a conceptual artist who uses text and imagery reminiscent of mass media. This is how she provokes the viewer to think about themes concerning power, feminism and identity. With a recognisable letter type in white, red and black, she directly addresses the viewer. Kiss – which refers to the exclamation ‘Kiss my ass’ – resulted from a collaboration between Artek (producer of Alvar Aalto’s stool) and the London Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Supreme is an ultra-commercial skate brand. In collaboration with Cassina (producer of Rietveld’s slat chair), it uses the slat chair as a carrier of its visual language. This visual language strongly resembles the one Kruger used several decades earlier. Rietveld would probably have been horrified at this appropriation of an artist’s visual language for commercial purposes. But the fierce debates that this version of the chair triggers does mean that it has again become widely known. Which Rietveld would surely have been happy with. [text 2023]