Paul Evans Sofas
A designer and sculptor, Paul Evans was a wild card of late 20th century modernism. A leading light of the American Studio Furniture movement, Evans’s sideboards, credenzas, coffee tables and other work manifests a singular aesthetic sense, as well as a seemingly contradictory appreciation for both folk art forms and for new materials and technologies.
Evans’s primary material was metal, not wood, which was favored by his fellow studio designers, and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, neighbors George Nakashima and Phillip Lloyd Powell. He trained in metallurgy and studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the famed crucible of modern design and art in suburban Detroit. For a time early in his career, Evans also worked at Sturbridge Village, a historical “living museum” in Massachusetts, where he gave demonstrations as a costumed silversmith.
Evans’s earliest work unites these influences. The pieces that made his reputation are known as “sculpted-front” cabinets: wood cases faced with box-like high-relief patinated steel mounts laid out in a grid pattern. Each mount contains a metal emblem, or glyph, and the effect is that of a brawny quilt.
Evans’s later work falls into three distinct style groups. His sculpted-bronze pieces, begun in the mid-1960s, show Evans at his most expressive. He employed a technique in which resin is hand-shaped, and later sprayed with a metal coating, allowing for artistic nuance in the making of chairs, tables and case pieces. Later in the decade and into the 1970s, Evans produced his Argente series for celebrated manufacturer Directional (a brand known to vintage mid-century modern furniture collectors everywhere): consoles and other furniture forms that feature aluminum and pigment-infused metal surfaces welded into abstract organic forms and patterns.
Last, Evans's Cityscape design series — a milestone in the history of brutalist design — meshed perfectly with the sleek, “high tech” sensibility of the later ’70s. Evans constructed boxy forms and faced them with irregular mosaic patterns that mixed rectangular plaques of chromed steel, bronze or burlwood veneer. These, like all of Paul Evans’s designs, are both useful and eye-catching. But their appeal has another, more visceral quality: these pieces have clearly been touched by an artist’s hand.
Find a collection of authentic Paul Evans furniture today on 1stDibs.
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Evans Sofas
Chrome
1960s American Brutalist Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Bronze
1970s American Brutalist Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Bronze
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Lacquer, Teak, Polyester, Foam, Velvet, Upholstery, Mohair, Wood
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Leather
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Paul Evans Sofas
Upholstery, Teak
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Suede, Wood
1960s Unknown Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Fabric
2010s American Modern Paul Evans Sofas
Cotton
1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Faux Fur, Plastic, Wood
1960s French French Provincial Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Upholstery, Cane, Hardwood
2010s American Modern Paul Evans Sofas
Cotton, Maple
21st Century and Contemporary Asian Chesterfield Paul Evans Sofas
Leather
1950s American American Craftsman Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Poplar, Tulipwood, Walnut
2010s North American Chesterfield Paul Evans Sofas
Bronze
1970s American Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Chrome
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Chrome
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Brass
Late 20th Century American Paul Evans Sofas
Late 20th Century American Paul Evans Sofas
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Paul Evans Sofas
Brass
1970s American Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Brass, Steel
1970s Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Wood
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Paul Evans Sofas
Upholstery
Copper,Bronze and Pewter over wood
Upholstered in red velvet