Modern Maps
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
Mid-20th Century German Modern Maps
Sterling Silver
Late 20th Century American Modern Maps
Metal
20th Century English Modern Maps
Plastic, Wood
20th Century English Modern Maps
Silver Leaf
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Maps
Metal
1850s American Antique Modern Maps
Iron
1890s English Antique Modern Maps
Paper
Early 20th Century German Modern Maps
Metal
1920s English Vintage Modern Maps
Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Hong Kong Modern Maps
Paper
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Maps
Paper
Late 20th Century Czech Modern Maps
Iron
Early 20th Century British Modern Maps
Silver, Sterling Silver
Mid-19th Century American Antique Modern Maps
Metal
20th Century American Modern Maps
Metal
Mid-20th Century English Modern Maps
Metal
Early 1900s German Antique Modern Maps
Tin
Late 20th Century Modern Maps
Burl, Paper
1930s American Vintage Modern Maps
Paper
Mid-20th Century Modern Maps
Metal
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Maps
Faux Bamboo, Resin
20th Century Spanish Modern Maps
Iron
21st Century and Contemporary English Modern Maps
Lapis Lazuli