Modern Davide Medri For Dilmos
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Mirrors
Mirror
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Mirrors
Mirror
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Table Mirrors
Silver
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Clocks
Gold Leaf
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Cut Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Iron
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Mid-20th Century European Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
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Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
Glass, Walnut
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Desks
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Vintage 1960s Italian End Tables
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Late 20th Century Turkish Tulu Turkish Rugs
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Vintage 1970s German Mid-Century Modern Floor Mirrors and Full-Length Mi...
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2010s American Modern Shelves
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Cupboards
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Antique Early 19th Century Chinese Qing Decorative Art
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Mid-20th Century Hollywood Regency Table Mirrors
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Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
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2010s American Modern Dry Bars
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20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Cupboards
Chrome
Antique 15th Century and Earlier Chinese Tang Antiquities
Stoneware
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Cut Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Cut 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.