Gerrit Rietveld's ''Red-Blue'' chair, the first object made in the De Stijl palette, looks today as it did when the design was new 70 years ago - like a three-dimensional Mondrian. A rare early example of the Dutch architect's chair, its stained surfaces faded and worn, it is one of many surprises to be seen in ''Gerrit Rietveld: A Centenary Exhibition,'' opening tomorrow at the Barry Friedman gallery, 1117 Madison Avenue (at 84th Street). The exhibition and sale of 43 Rietveld chairs, tables, chests, a lighting fixture, child's wheelbarrow, highchair and dollhouse - the largest presentation of his period works ever held in this country - remains through Nov. 12. All of the Rietveld works on display are identified as documented originals. This is most unusual today because so few quality examples of Rietveld's period furnishings survive. Many exhibitions in this country, even those held in museums, present reproductions - both those made by Cassina of Italy, from 1971 on, and by others elsewhere.
Barry Friedman explained last weekend that in Rietveld's case, an original means anything made by him, by his cabinetmaker Gerard van de Groenekan, or by Metz & Company, a manufacturer. The dates of execution, as indicated in many cases by the paper labels, vary considerably and may be years, even decades, after a chair, table or lighting fixture first appeared. The furniture and lighting in the show include one or more examples of most of the innovative forms pioneered by Rietveld between 1915 and his death in 1964. Among his major designs represented are the 1920 tubular lighting fixture, the 1923 Berlin chair, the 1923 asymmetrical end table, the 1927 bent plywood chair, the 1934 Zigzag chair and the 1934 Crate furniture. Mr. Friedman said that the well-worn example on view of Rietveld's color-stained ''Rood Blauwe Stoel'' is a revelation because its uncharacteristically faint finish differs markedly from the vividly colored painted versions. ''It's the only example I know of in this color-stained finish,'' he said, adding that it probably predates painted versions.
Made by the architect for a painter acquaintance in 1919, the chair's stained surfaces - red slab back, blue seat, black frame and yellow edges - are dim splotchy echoes of what they probably were when it was new. The Red-Blue chair reproduced in books is in the clear opaque colors that are associated with the abstract art and architecture of Mondrian and Theo Van Doesburg, founders in 1917 of the De Stijl. The movement, which Rietveld joined in 1919 and left in 1931, advanced abstract art and modern architecture in the Netherlands between World Wars I and II. The color-stained version is one of eight variations of Red-Blue chair shown. Each differs subtly or dramatically from all the rest, either in form, finish or both. Three, made in 1918 and 1919, are finished in a dark wood stain, thought to be the original surface treatment. One, made by Rietveld for himself, using wood recycled from a dismantled bowling alley, is fitted with side panels to cradle a sitter's hips - a feature he eliminated in later versions of this chair.
The side panels appear on another of the wood-stained versions, called a ''Gentleman's'' chair. However, there are none on its mate, a much shorter and narrower ''Lady's'' chair. Only two of the eight Red-Blue chairs are red and blue. The rest are painted all white, all gray or a mix of green and black. This shows, Mr. Friedman said, that Rietveld tolerated, indeed developed, many variations of his designs. ''I spent a lot of time in the basement of the Stedejlik Museum looking at various examples of Rietveld's chairs and tables that I had never seen before and never even knew existed,'' Mr. Friedman said, adding that the Amsterdam museum has the finest collection of the architect's work. Reyer Kras, curator of decorative arts, assisted Mr. Friedman in researching the works chosen for the show over six years. Mr. Kras also contributed an essay to the 66-page catalogue ($20). Gerrit Thomas Rietveld was born in Utrecht in 1888, the son of J. C. Rietveld, a cabinetmaker. He left school at 11 to apprentice in his father's shop, where he developed his considerable craft skills.
At the age of 12 he made a sparely wrought set of chairs and a table of sticks and boards that survives in the gatehouse of a medieval castle near Utrecht. The Arts-and-Crafts-style furniture anticipates the minimal approach to design he evolved after World War I. Rietveld worked for several years after 1906 as a draftsmen in a jewelry studio, and later studied architecture. From 1911 until 1919 he was an independent cabinetmaker. It was in this period that Rietveld developed the remarkable child's highchair shown - an assemblage of wood rods, held together mostly by dowels, and fitted with a leather seat and back. The chair, a precursor of the Red-Blue chair, is one of the earliest constructed by Rietveld with overlapping wood lathes - lightening the look of the chair and increasing its strength. The Rietveld revival began slowly in the 1950's when the Museum of Modern Art exhibited some of the architect's designs. Artists, including Donald Judd and Sol Lewitt, began collecting Rietveld furniture, buying originals in Utrecht.
The increased interest in all early 20th-century architects' furniture in recent years has focused renewed attention on Rietveld, an innovator whose bent plywood chair preceded Alvar Aalto's and who did the first Zigzag chair, the first paper sheeting chair and the first lighting fixture of bare tubular bulbs. The Rietveld revival gained momentum in the 1970's after reproductions were introduced. The auctions of the 1980's in Amsterdam - first by Christie's and later by Sotheby's - attracted scores of originals to the auction block and propelled prices to stunning levels. Mr. Friedman was a major buyer at these sales - but did not buy the Berlin chair that was auctioned in 1987 for $98,354, an auction record for Rietveld. The chair went to the Australian National Gallery. Prices for the furniture in the show range from $2,500 for a Crate armchair from 1934 to $115,000 for the child's highchair. Photo of a wood and leather highchair by Gerrit Rietveld, possibly made in 1915 (Stuart and Roberta Friedman)