Meier Ferrer
2010s American Modern Floor Mirrors and Full-Length Mirrors
Mirror, Teak
2010s American Modern Night Stands
Steel
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21st Century and Contemporary Mid-Century Modern Floor Mirrors and Full-...
Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Flush Mount
Steel, Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Mexican Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile, Wood
2010s Austrian Jugendstil Chandeliers and Pendants
Silk
2010s French Modern Chairs
Oak
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Sofas
Mohair, Oak, Fabric
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Floor Lamps
Metal
Vintage 1980s Japanese Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Travertine
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wardrobes and Armoires
Chestnut
2010s American Modern Cabinets
Bronze
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern End Tables
Oak
2010s Belgian Modern Sofas
Linen
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Floor Lamps
Brass
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Velvet, Oak
Recent Sales
2010s American Modern Club Chairs
Steel
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
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