Brutalist Furniture and Design
Brutalist Furniture and Design (UNITED STATES AND EUROPE)
The term brutalism — which derives from the French word brut, meaning “raw” — was coined to describe an architectural style that emerged in the 1950s featuring monumental buildings, usually made of unornamented concrete, whose design was meant to project an air of strength and solidity. Le Corbusier essentially created the brutalist style; its best-known iterations in the United States are the Marcel Breuer–designed Whitney Museum of American Art and Paul Rudolph's Yale Art and Architecture Building.
Lately, the word “brutalist” has been adopted by the realms of design and the decorative arts to refer to cabinets, tables, and accessory pieces such as mirror frames and lighting that are made of rougher, deeply textured metals and other materials that are the visual and palpable antithesis of the sleek, smooth and suave. Brutalist design encompasses that which is crafted, hewn and worked by hand — an aesthetic rebuke (or, at least, a counterpoint) to furniture that is created using 21st-century materials and technology.
Paul Evans is Exhibit A for brutalist design. His Sculpture Front cabinets laced with high-relief patinated steel mounts have become collector's items nonpareil, while the chairs and tables in his later Cityscape series and Sculpted Bronze series are perhaps the most expressive, attention-grabbing pieces in modern American design. Other exemplars of brutalist design are Silas Seandel, the idiosyncratic New York furniture designer and sculptor whose works in metal — in particular his tables — have a kind of brawny lyricism, and Curtis Jere, a nom-de-trade for the California team of Curtis Freiler and Jerry Fels, the bold makers of expressive scorched and sheared copper and brass mirror frames and wall-mounted sculptures.
The names of other brutalist designers are, so far, unknown to history. The furniture and sculptures on 1stDibs lend unique, eccentric, human notes to an art and design collection.
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Daniel Gluck Sculptural Cocktail Table
By Daniel Gluck
Located in San Diego, CA
Brutalist sculptural bronze coffee or cocktail table with rectangular glass top by Daniel Gluck. Glass top measures 48" long, 32" wide. Table base measures 38" long, 23" wide, 14" ta...
Category
20th Century American Brutalist Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Bronze
Gabor Kalman Brutalist Steel Sculpture
Located in Chicago, IL
Kalman takes steel and torch-cuts it, then contours it for a Brutalist effect.
Signed base Gabor Kalman '68.
This item is currently on view in our NYC Greenwich Street Location.
Category
1960s American Brutalist Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Cut Steel
Brutalist coffee table after Silas Seandel
By Silas Seandel
Located in Chicago, IL
Brutalist coffee table after Silas Seandel. Glass not included. This form can take a variety of round glass tops. Structurally sound to handle the weight.
The height of the metal ...
Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Metal
Metal Brutalist Lamp
Located in Toronto, Ontario
A very nice heavily worked metal lamp.
Thick pierced and cut raw metal with applied welds and folds.
A Brutalist masterpiece.
Useable sculpture.
Category
1970s American Brutalist Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Metal
Brutalist Steel Sculpture
Located in Montreal, QC
Brutalist patinated steel sculpture. Signed and dated 1970.
Category
1970s Canadian Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Sven Aage Brutalist Hanging Lamp for Holm Sorensen & Company
By Holm Sørensen
Located in Oak Harbor, OH
Designer: Sven Aage.
Manufacturer: Holm Sorensen & Company.
Period or model: Mid-Century Modern.
Specs: Metal.
Condition:
This Holm Sorensen brutalist lamp is in great vintag...
Category
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Monumental Pair of Brutalist Torch Cut Steel Laurel Lamps Mid-Century Modern
By Laurel Lamp Company
Located in Pemberton, NJ
1960s table lamp in Brutalist style. Comprised of welded torch cut steel cubic strips with a black base. The size alone is impressive let alone the skillfully welded construction in ...
Category
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Iron
Pair of C. Jere Style Brass Brutalist Table Lamps Laurel, Mid-Century Modern
By Curtis Jeré
Located in Pemberton, NJ
These wonderful lamps are designed by Bijan of California titled “Setarrah”. Large-scale sculptural table lamps comprised of a brass rod sunburst and torch cut curved brass ribbons...
Category
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Brass
Solid Cast Bronze Large Scale Room Divider Syracuse, NY 1964
Located in New York, NY
Lobby room divider from the Public Safety Building in Syracuse, NY sculpted in 1964. This is a magnificent example of Mid-Century Modern design. Composed of alternating pod-shaped s...
Category
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Bronze
Related Items
Brutalist pendant lamp by Svend Aage Holm Sorensen for Sørensen & Co. Denmark
By Svend Aage Holm Sørensen, Holm Sørensen
Located in Steenwijk, NL
This stunning brutalist pendant lamp, model 6407, was designed by Svend Aage Holm Sørensen for Sørensen & Co in Denmark in the 1960's. The use and work of oxidised brass makes this l...
Category
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Metal, Brass
Brutalist Chain Link Sculpture
Located in Malibu, CA
Antique chain sculpture that defies gravity.
The term brutalism — which derives from the French word brut, meaning “raw” — was coined to describe this style trend that emerged in the...
Category
1960s Brutalist Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Iron
Brutalist Mid-Century Modern Sculptural Cocktail Table with Glass & Gilt wood
Located in Port Jervis, NY
Fabulous hand carved wooden frame cocktail table. Carved florets and acanthus leaves surround the frame. Recessed is a flat Gilt top with a sheet of glass for protection.
Base consists of barley twist legs and stretcher. Ball and iron claw...
Category
1960s American Brutalist Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Gold Leaf, Iron
H 21 in W 53 in D 33.5 in
Brutalist Brass Hanging Lamp by Svend Aage Holm Sørensen, 1960s
By Holm Sørensen
Located in Esbjerg, DK
Acid treated and torch-cut pendant designed by Svend Aage Holm Sørensen in the early 1960s. Manufactured by Holm-Sørensen & Pedersen in Denmark, circa 1970. Makers mark present to th...
Category
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Brass
Daniel Gluck Mid Century Bronze Brutalist Swirl Coffee Table
By Daniel Gluck
Located in Countryside, IL
Daniel Gluck Mid Century Bronze Brutalist Swirl Coffee Table
This coffee table measures: 47 wide x 30 deep x 16 inches high
All pieces of furnitur...
Category
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Bronze
Silas Seandel Silver Leafed Brutalist Torch Cut Coffee Table
By Silas Seandel
Located in Dallas, TX
Silver leafed torch cut coffee table by Silas Seandel. Retains original glass top.
Base measures: 44 x 21".
Category
Mid-20th Century American Brutalist Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Metal
Midcentury Holm Sorensen Brutalist Pendant
By Holm Sørensen
Located in Copenhagen, K
Rare Holm Sorensen brutalist pendant.
Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Brass
1960s Svend Aage Holm-Sørensen Brutalist Brass Pendant Lamp
By Holm Sørensen & Pedersen Belysning, Svend Aage Holm Sørensen
Located in Glendale, CA
1960s Svend Aage Holm-Sørensen Brutalist Brass Pendant Lamp. Executed in architecturally perforated burned brass. A highly refined Brutalist piece that retains the geometric characte...
Category
1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Metal, Brass
Mid-Century Modern Sculptural Redwood Trunk Cocktail Table
Located in Port Jervis, NY
Fabulous and large Sculptural section of Redwood from California. Flat top measures 20 x 16, while the base is 24 x 24 with a height of 16. Piece of glass either round or square can ...
Category
1960s American Organic Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Hardwood
Brutalist Ceiling Lamp by Svend Aage Holm-Sørensen, 1960s
By Holm Sørensen
Located in Esbjerg, DK
Danish Brutalist chain-suspended hanging lamp composed of acid-treated and torch-cut brass. This model, 'P605', was designed by Svend Aage Holm Sørensen in the early 1960s. The shade...
Category
1960s Danish Brutalist Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Brass
Mid-Century Modern Brutalist Pendant Light by Svend Aage Holm Sørensen, 1960’s
By Holm Sørensen, Svend Aage Holm Sørensen
Located in London, GB
Danish designer Svend Aage Holm Sørensen (1913-2004) is known for his self-produced lighting designs dating from the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s. Despite the desirability of his designs on the vintage market, there is a lack of biographical information on the designer and his eponymous manufacturing company.
The Danish designer Svend Aage Holm-Sørensen (1913-2004) possessed an artist eye and a very good understanding of the potential of materials, and he understood how to innovate with these. To this day, Holm-Sørensen's style as a designer addresses not only the Nordic market, but also the international interest in the designer's distinctive and experimental expression. Sven Aage was known for being able to draw sketches on almost everything: envelopes, theater programs, even tram tickets he used to sketch his vision.
It is speculated that Holm Sørensen designed lights for well-known Danish lighting manufacturers Fog & Mørup and Lyfa in the 1950s, before establishing his own lighting company, Holm Sørensen A/S to produce and distribute his own designs.
Holm Sørensen’s style varies greatly, with designs from the 1950s truly reflecting the mid-century modern lighting style, with clear influences from the De Stijl and Bauhaus movements. His attenuated floor and table lamps contain the classic tri-pod base that was popular at the time, referencing such designs as H. Th. J. A. Busquet’s Pinocchio Lamp (1954).
From the 1960s onwards, Holm Sørensen’s style changed utterly. His designs diverged from colorful, geometric table lamps and floor lamps, to pendants with raw finished brass and copper surfaces. These pendant lamps showcase Holm Sørensen’s interpretation of the Brutalist style, which was popular from the 1950s to the mid-70s. Originally coined by the Swedish architect Hans Asplund...
Category
1960s Danish Brutalist Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Brass
H 12.41 in Dm 13.78 in
Brutalist Welded Steel Sculpture by California Artist Paul Kasper
By Paul Kasper
Located in Palm Springs, CA
Welded steel Brutalist sculpture by Paul Kasper, circa 1960s.
Was purchased from the estate of Paul Kasper.
Biography Paul Kasper.
Paul Charles Kasper was born in Whiting, I...
Category
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Brutalist Furniture and Design
Materials
Steel
