Karma Lighting
2010s Lebanese Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Aluminum, Brass
2010s Lebanese Modern Chairs
Aluminum
People Also Browsed
Mid-20th Century Moroccan Moorish Bottles
Brass
Early 20th Century Omani Islamic Metalwork
Brass, Copper
Mid-20th Century Egyptian Islamic Metalwork
Metal, Brass, Copper
21st Century and Contemporary Swiss Books
Paper
Vintage 1920s Moorish Urns
Brass
Antique 18th Century French Louis XVI Mantel Clocks
Marble, Bronze
Late 20th Century Unknown Chairs
Teak
Antique 1870s French Renaissance Revival Centerpieces
Marble, Bronze
Antique 19th Century Chinese Armchairs
Hardwood
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Living Room Sets
Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Paintings
Silk
Antique 1870s French Napoleon III Mantel Clocks
Bronze
2010s European Armchairs
Textile
Antique Late 19th Century Egyptian Moorish Metalwork
Brass
Antique 19th Century French Clocks
Ormolu
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Art Glass
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.