Bouroullec Cloud
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Bookcases
Plastic
Early 2000s French Modern Contemporary Art
Metal
2010s Lebanese Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Nickel
2010s Lebanese Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Steel
2010s Lebanese Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Steel
2010s Lebanese Post-Modern Flush Mount
Copper
2010s Lebanese Post-Modern Flush Mount
Bronze
2010s Lebanese Post-Modern Flush Mount
Brass
People Also Browsed
2010s American Books
Linen
2010s American Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Bottles
Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Mirrors a...
Glass, Acrylic
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Sofas
Steel, Chrome
21st Century and Contemporary English Modern Candlesticks
Brass
2010s European Wine Coolers
Marble
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Art Deco Beds and Bed Frames
Fabric, Velvet, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Modern Daybeds
Fabric, Bouclé, Wood
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
Fiberglass
2010s Turkish Modern Vases
Glass
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Bookcases
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Stools
Wood, Cedar
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Vases
Ceramic
Recent Sales
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Modern Vases
Ceramic
Early 2000s Italian Modern Bookcases
2010s Lebanese Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass
Early 2000s Italian Bookcases
Plastic
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.