Modern Sculptures
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1930s French Vintage Modern Sculptures
Plaster
1930s American Vintage Modern Sculptures
Plaster
1930s Italian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Ceramic
1930s American Vintage Modern Sculptures
Plaster
1930s American Vintage Modern Sculptures
Plaster
1930s American Vintage Modern Sculptures
Plaster
1930s Italian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Glass
1930s French Vintage Modern Sculptures
Plaster
1930s Italian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Porcelain
1930s Brazilian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Wood
1930s Belgian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Ceramic
1930s American Vintage Modern Sculptures
Acrylic
1930s French Vintage Modern Sculptures
Metal
1930s Danish Vintage Modern Sculptures
Stoneware
1930s Italian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Art Glass
1930s Italian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Glass
1930s Czech Vintage Modern Sculptures
Ceramic
1930s French Vintage Modern Sculptures
Bronze
1930s Czech Vintage Modern Sculptures
Art Glass
1930s French Vintage Modern Sculptures
Silver Plate, Spelter
1930s Japanese Vintage Modern Sculptures
Bronze
19th Century English Antique Modern Sculptures
Marble
1950s Italian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Bronze
2010s Turkish Modern Sculptures
Marble
2010s Turkish Modern Sculptures
Statuary Marble
1930s French Vintage Modern Sculptures
Plaster
2010s Italian Modern Sculptures
Plaster
2010s Italian Modern Sculptures
Marble
21st Century and Contemporary British Modern Sculptures
Plaster, Paint
2010s Turkish Modern Sculptures
Statuary Marble, Marble
2010s Italian Modern Sculptures
Ceramic
15th Century and Earlier Antique Modern Sculptures
Marble
21st Century and Contemporary British Modern Sculptures
Plaster
1930s Spanish Vintage Modern Sculptures
Plaster
1930s Japanese Vintage Modern Sculptures
Bronze
1930s Danish Vintage Modern Sculptures
Stoneware
1930s Scandinavian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Ceramic
1930s Scandinavian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Ceramic
1930s Scandinavian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Ceramic
1930s Scandinavian Vintage Modern Sculptures
Ceramic
1930s American Vintage Modern Sculptures
Bronze
1930s English Vintage Modern Sculptures
Bronze
1930s British Vintage Modern Sculptures
Iron, Steel
1930s English Vintage Modern Sculptures
Bronze
1930s American Vintage Modern Sculptures
Bakelite