Modern Dining Room Chairs
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Plastic
20th Century Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel
Early 2000s Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Foam, Lucite
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Canvas
1970s Italian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Plastic
2010s French Modern Dining Room Chairs
Leather, Beech
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Aluminum
1940s Italian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Indian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Wool
1960s American Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Acrylic
1980s Italian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
1950s German Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Rush, Beech
1950s Danish Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Rosewood, Wool
2010s Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery, Plastic
2010s Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery, Ash
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel