Furniture designer Maarten Baas doesn't subscribe to conformist notions of beauty and symmetry. He finds appeal in the character of aged patinas and wear from usage. As such, Baas doesn't seek to create furniture or decorative objects that are perfectly proportioned — for proof, look no further than to the unconventional cabinets of his Close Parity collection or the chairs with oddly shaped backrests he designed for Lensvelt.
Baas breaks unspoken rules, and his influential work is as much art as it is functional design — he’s garnered support from likeminded creatives in his field such as Phillippe Starck and Marcel Wanders, and explores how he might put unusual materials to work such as clay or charred wood in the construction of his chairs and table lamps.
Baas was born in Germany and grew up in the Netherlands. After graduating high school, he began his studies at the Design Academy in Eindhoven. Before he had even graduated, Baas made an impression on instructors and students alike with his graduation project.
Using pieces of secondhand furniture he had procured online — some of which was manufactured by IKEA — Baas scorched the wood all the way through with a blowtorch. He soon found a way to preserve the wood once it was burned through, and this led to his inaugural Smoke series. The chairs and a lighting fixture from this line were put into production by Moooi, a furniture brand Wanders cofounded with Revised’s Casper Vissers in 2001. Hospitality guru Ian Schrager got in touch, and a pool table from the collection was custom-made by Baas for the Gramercy Park Hotel.
Since Smoke, Baas has produced numerous pieces, with his best-known efforts involving the repurposing of existing furniture and modifying it to look the way he wants. Ever the innovator, Baas introduced a series of clock designs as part of an art installation that began to take shape in 2009 at the Salone Del Mobile in Milan.
The designer’s clocks see an incorporation of video and other technology. Each piece, such as the ten-foot tall model installed at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in 2016, presents the illusion of human figures toiling to keep time behind its face by way of a 12-hour recorded performance.
Baas’s works are held in the collections of many notable museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
$5,481 / item
Contemporary Plain Clay Bar Stool by Maarten Baas
By Maarten Baas
Located in Warsaw, PL
This bar stool comes from Maarten Baas’s Plain Clay collection. This collection was originally developed for the Mendini restaurant in the Groninger Museum. Unlike the Clay Series...
Metal
$7,296 / item
Maarten Baas 'Clay' Piano Stool for BAAS
By Maarten Baas
Located in Tilburg, NL
Maarten Baas 'Clay' Piano Stool, Classic Clay Collection, New - Current Production, The Netherlands. The spontaneous and naïve designs of Maarten Baas’ Clay series express artistic...
Metal
Moooi SLT Footstool in Bearded Leopard Jacquard Mustard Upholstery & Wood Frame
By Moooi, Maarten Baas
Located in Brooklyn, NY
The Something Like This sofa is a celebration of the designer's love for sketchy drawings translated into a soft unusually modelled sofa. Additional information: Material: Wooden...
Upholstery
Mid Century Mustard Yellow Flowers Stool, Poland, 1970s
Located in 05-080 Hornowek, PL
Space Age style plastic stool was made in Poland by Krynwald ERG fabric around the 1960s-1970s. The futuristic shape is tapered and aerodynamic, with a tulip foot and an yellow musta...
Fabric, Plastic
$6,525Sale Price / item|10% Off
H 30.71 in W 16.15 in D 19.69 in
In stock Classic Clay Dining Chair Blue by Maarten Baas
By Maarten Baas
Located in Beverly Hills, CA
The spontaneous and naïve designs of Maarten Baas’ Clay series express artistic vulnerability. Each piece is handmade of industrial clay, covering a steel fr...
Clay
Set of Two Mustard Yellow Stools, Europe, 1960s
Located in 05-080 Hornowek, PL
Stools from the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Beautiful mustard velor upholstery. The stools consists of an upholstered part, a seat and wooden legs narrowing downwards, characteristi...
Velvet, Wood
19th Century Biedermeier Footstool
Located in Darmstadt, DE
We present an authentic small Biedermeier footstool from around 1830. The piece features a solid walnut top resting on oak legs, displaying the w...
Oak, Walnut
Leopard Vintage Stool, 1960s
Located in 05-080 Hornowek, PL
Stool from the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Beautiful soft velvet leopard print upholstery. The stool consists of an upholstered part, a seat and wooden legs narrowing downwards, cha...
Velvet, Beech
$295 / item
H 15.75 in W 25.2 in D 14.97 in
Midcentury Mustard Yellow Vintage Stool, Edmund Homa, 1960s
Located in 05-080 Hornowek, PL
Stool from the turn of the 1960s. Beautiful mustard yellow high quality velvet upholstery. The stool consists of an upholstered part, a seat and wooden legs narrowing downwards, char...
Fabric
Leopard Vintage Stool, 1960s
Located in 05-080 Hornowek, PL
Stool from the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Beautiful soft velvet leopard print upholstery. The stool consists of an upholstered part, a seat and wooden legs narrowing downwards, cha...
Velvet
$177 / item
H 11.82 in W 11.82 in D 7.88 in
Mini Butterfly Stool, Pink Fandango Jacquard, Dark Wood, Europe 1960s
Located in 05-080 Hornowek, PL
Small stool called "Butterfly" with dark brown walnut stained beech legs and fully upholstered seat in beautiful jacquard italian fabric. This stool can be customized to your specif...
Fabric, Beech, Jacquard
Pair of Mustard Yellow Stools, 1960s
Located in 05-080 Hornowek, PL
Stools from the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. Beautiful mustard velor upholstery. The stools consists of an upholstered part, a seat and wooden legs narrowing downwards, characteristi...
Velvet, Wood
$4,273Sale Price / item|20% Off
H 17.72 in W 27.56 in D 27.56 in
Postmodern Jacquard Velvet Madonna Stool Marble Made in Portugal by Malabar
Located in RIO TINTO, PT
Madonna stool is part of New Malabar's collection, Future Classics. Always curious about new scientific discoveries, the atom becomes one of Salvador Dalí favorite subjects of reflexion. Dalí borrows the image of a Madonna by Raphael Sanzio to conceived the Maximum Speed of Raphael’s Madonna. Her breaks up into spheres, geometrically perfect figures, and into forms resembling rhinoceros horns...
Marble
Contemporary Clay Dining Chair by Maarten Baas
By Maarten Baas
Located in Warsaw, PL
These vibrant chairs are from Maarten Baas’s iconic ‘Clay’ collection launched in 2006. The idiosyncratic childishness of this collection is created through Baas’s individual hand mo...
Metal
Classic Clay Dining Chair Black by Maarten Baas
By Maarten Baas
Located in Beverly Hills, CA
The spontaneous and naïve designs of Maarten Baas’ Clay series express artistic vulnerability. Each piece is handmade of industrial clay, covering a steel fr...
Clay