Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
The design of brutalist furniture encompasses that which is crafted, hewn and worked by hand — an aesthetic rebuke (or, at least, a counterpoint) to furniture that is created using 21st-century materials and technology. Lately, the word “brutalist” has been adopted by the realms of furniture design and the decorative arts to refer to chairs, cabinets, tables and accessory pieces such as mirror frames and lighting that are made of rougher, deeply textured metals and other materials that are the visual and palpable antithesis of the sleek, smooth and suave.
ORIGINS OF BRUTALIST FURNITURE DESIGN
- Brutalism emerged during the mid-20th century
- Term coined by architecture critic Reyner Banham
- Originated in the United Kingdom
- Brutalist architecture gained popularity in the United States beginning in the early 1960s
- Inaugural brutalist projects include Unité d'habitation and the city of Chandigarh, India, both of which owe to influential architect Charles-Édouard “Le Corbusier” Jeanneret
- Le Corbusier’s cousin, Pierre Jeanneret, designed hundreds of chairs, tables, cabinets and lamps for Chandigarh
- Informed by the Bauhaus, constructivism, modernism and the International Style; part of mid-century modernism
- Contrasted starkly with Beaux Arts style
CHARACTERISTICS OF BRUTALIST FURNITURE DESIGN
- Use of industrial materials — tubular steel, concrete, glass, granite
- Prioritizes functionalism, minimalism and utilization of negative space
- Spare silhouettes, pronounced geometric shapes
- Stripped-down, natural look; rugged textures, modular construction
- Interiors featuring airy visual flow and reliance on neutral palettes
BRUTALIST FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
VINTAGE BRUTALIST FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
The term brutalism — which derives from the French word brut, meaning “raw” — was coined by architecture critic Reyner Banham to describe an architectural style that emerged in the 1950s featuring monumental buildings, usually made of unornamented concrete, whose design was meant to project an air of strength and solidity.
Le Corbusier essentially created the brutalist style; its best-known iterations in the United States are the Whitney Museum of American Art, which was designed by Marcel Breuer, and Paul Rudolph's Yale Art and Architecture Building. The severe style might have been the most criticized architectural movement of the 20th century, even if it was an honest attempt to celebrate the beauty of raw material. But while the brutalist government buildings in Washington, D.C., seemingly bask in their un-beauty, brutalist interior design and decor is much more lyrical, at times taking on a whimsical, romantic quality that its exterior counterparts lack.
Paul Evans is Exhibit A for brutalist furniture design. His Sculpture Front cabinets laced with high-relief patinated steel mounts have become collector's items nonpareil, while the chairs, coffee table and dining table in his later Cityscape series and Sculpted Bronze series for Directional Furniture are perhaps the most expressive, attention-grabbing pieces in American modern design. Other exemplary brutalist designers are Silas Seandel, the idiosyncratic New York furniture designer and sculptor whose works in metal — in particular his tables — have a kind of brawny lyricism, and Curtis Jere, a nom-de-trade for the California team of Curtis Freiler and Jerry Fels, the bold makers of expressive scorched and sheared copper and brass mirror frames and wall-mounted sculptures.
Brutalist furniture and sculptures remain popular with interior designers and can lend unique, eccentric, human notes to an art and design collection in any home.
Find authentic vintage brutalist chairs, coffee tables, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.
1970s American Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Resin, Wood
Mid-20th Century North American Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Steel
1950s Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Soapstone
1970s American Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Wrought Iron
1980s French Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Russian Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Oak
Mid-20th Century American Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Aluminum
Early 20th Century Chinese Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Hardwood
Mid-20th Century American Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Metal
19th Century Japanese Antique Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Paper
2010s Portuguese Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Oak
1970s Italian Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Plywood
20th Century Chinese Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Wood
2010s American Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Bronze
1960s French Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Oak
20th Century Chinese Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Soapstone, Brass
1980s American Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Art Glass
Early 1900s French Antique Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Iron, Brass
1960s American Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Walnut
1970s American Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Metal
1960s American Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Wood
Mid-20th Century American Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Iron, Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary European Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Cut Steel
Late 20th Century American Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Metal
1980s Mexican Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Brass, Steel
Mid-20th Century American Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Copper, Wrought Iron
1960s American Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Wood
2010s American Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
1960s American Vintage Brutalist Screens and Room Dividers
Brass, Copper, Wrought Iron