Yoshino Cedar
2010s Japanese Modern Wall Mirrors
Wood
2010s Japanese Modern Chairs
Wood
2010s Japanese Modern Chairs
Wood
2010s Japanese Modern Rocking Chairs
Wood
2010s Japanese Modern Chairs
Wood
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Wood
Antique Early 19th Century Asian Antiquities
Iron
Vintage 1980s Philippine Hollywood Regency Wall Mirrors
Marble, Brass
20th Century English Chesterfield Footstools
Leather, Oak
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Armchairs
Brass
20th Century Italian Neoclassical Wall Mirrors
Mirror, Wood
2010s Portuguese Armchairs
Marble
Vintage 1970s European French Provincial Canapes
Velvet
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Loveseats
Velvet
2010s Philippine Picture Frames
Suede, Walnut, Shagreen
Mid-20th Century Japanese Showa Sculptures and Carvings
Iron
Late 20th Century English Art Deco Wall Mirrors
Mirror
Early 20th Century French Louis XVI Footstools
Upholstery, Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Sofas
Brass
Antique Late 19th Century Indian Folk Art Sculptures and Carvings
Paint, Teak
20th Century Chinese Sculptures and Carvings
Recent Sales
2010s Japanese Modern Abstract Sculptures
Wood
2010s Japanese Modern Rocking Chairs
Wood
2010s Japanese Modern Chairs
Wood
2010s Japanese Modern Chairs
Wood
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.