Zhuang Poltrona
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Platters and Serveware
Leather, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Platters and Serveware
Leather, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Platters and Serveware
Leather, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Platters and Serveware
Leather, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Desk Sets
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Desk Sets
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Desk Sets
Metal
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21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Modern Benches
Fabric, Velvet, Lacquer, Wood
2010s American Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Composition
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Blown Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
20th Century Swedish Mid-Century Modern Dressers
Birch
2010s American Modern Floor Mirrors and Full-Length Mirrors
Brass, Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Chairs
Leather
Vintage 1950s Console Tables
Steel
Late 20th Century Moroccan Moorish Decorative Boxes
Bone
Late 20th Century Italian Minimalist Credenzas
Leather, Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Benches
Leather, Fabric, Birch, Plywood
Mid-20th Century Hong Kong Chinese Export Blanket Chests
Brass
20th Century Indian Anglo-Indian Blanket Chests
Brass
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Pillows and Throws
Fur
Vintage 1980s Italian Modern Armchairs
Leather
A Close Look at modern Furniture
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.