Gallery Tonon
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Sofas
Upholstery
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Armchairs
Upholstery
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Sideboards
Steel
2010s American Modern Side Tables
Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dry Bars
Steel
2010s Italian Chaise Longues
Metal, Other
Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Plastic
2010s American Modern Chaise Longues
Upholstery
2010s American Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
20th Century Indian Anglo-Indian Stools
Leather, Wicker
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Polyester
21st Century and Contemporary Ottomans and Poufs
Hemp
2010s European Mid-Century Modern Chaise Longues
Brass
Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Carts and Bar Carts
Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery
2010s Italian Modern Chaise Longues
Wood
Vintage 1970s American Bohemian Ottomans and Poufs
Wicker
2010s Italian Bookcases
Steel
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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.