Bouchon Chandelier

After finishing his studies in finance and marketing in London and New York, Istanbul-born designer Barlas Baylar established Hudson Furniture in 2004 in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Baylar’s reputable firm draws on modern architecture and classic Art Deco design to produce intriguing, complex lighting fixtures and furnishings. 

At its New York City atelier, Hudson Furniture’ highly skilled craftspeople create dining tables, chairs and decorative objects by hand, giving each piece its own individual provenance. With respect to sourcing its materials, the company prioritizes conservation (Hudson is a repository for legally harvested petrified wood).

Baylar’s firm utilizes strictly dead or dying wood from around the world, accepting salvaged material and wood from trees downed by storm damage or other natural occurrences, and owing to his love for nature, he seeks to bring the outdoors into interior spaces so that its beauty can be admired as pieces of functional but sculptural furniture. 

From the exquisite hand-blown globe glass elements that comprise his Valiant lighting collection to sculptural, striking polished bronze branches that wrap around his Meta credenza, Bayler designs provocative furniture that elevates any space. Over the years Hudson Furniture has partnered with the likes of Tommy Hilfiger, Alexander McQueen, Burberry, Tom Ford and more.  

Whether it's a stand-alone coffee table or part of a dining room chair set on display in the firm’s New York City showroom, Hudson Furniture continues to create marvelous, one-of-a-kind pieces to be cherished for generations to come.

Find Barlas Baylar tables, seating and lighting on 1stDibs.

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.

Abstract sculpture has evolved over time with artists making a variety of striking statements in stone, bronze, ceramic and other materials. In the collection of abstract sculptures on 1stDibs, you are sure to find a piece that is perfect for your space.

When exploring how to arrange furniture and decor, consider color, texture and what kind of energy it should evoke. Abstract sculpture can elevate any home through its many decorative possibilities.

Auguste Rodin is often called the father of modern sculpture for his pioneering naturalistic forms and figures that vividly express emotion. His work in the 19th and early 20th centuries broke with artistic conventions and inspired modernism, leading to a new period of avant-garde abstraction.

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were among the first artists to push abstract sculpture into the mainstream. They helped define the Cubism movement, which focused on deconstructing the world abstractly. Other 20th-century artistic movements, including Italian Futurism, Dadaism, Neo-Dadaism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, all contributed to the advancement of abstract sculpture. Italian Futurism, for example, celebrated movement, dynamics and technology in abstract sculpture. These movements continue to inform abstract sculpture today.

With abstract art — sculpture, painting or a grouping of prints — a work can complement a living room, dining room or other space, or it can act as a bold focal point.

Browse a range of modern abstract sculptures, postmodern abstract sculptures and other sculptures on 1stDibs.