Fire And Light Recycled Glass
2010s Italian Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Copper, Enamel
2010s Italian Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Copper, Enamel
2010s Italian Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Copper, Enamel
1930s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints
Paper
People Also Browsed
2010s American Flush Mount
Brass
2010s South African Minimalist Pedestals
Hardwood
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Nickel
2010s Scandinavian Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Brass, Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary Japanese Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Metal
1920s Post-Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Oil, Panel
2010s North American Modern Night Stands
Brass
2010s American Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass, Bronze, Nickel
2010s Austrian Jugendstil Chandeliers and Pendants
Silk
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Nickel
21st Century and Contemporary Mexican Organic Modern Table Lamps
Linen, Wood
19th Century Academic Nude Paintings
Oil
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Organic Modern Center Tables
Travertine
2010s South African Minimalist Pedestals
Lacquer
Vintage 1950s German Mid-Century Modern Stools
Metal
Early 1900s Vienna Secession Figurative Prints
Paper
Recent Sales
Late 20th Century Modern Serving Bowls
Glass
2010s Italian Modern Table Lamps
Aluminum
2010s Italian Modern Table Lamps
Aluminum
2010s Italian Modern Table Lamps
Aluminum
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
Read More
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