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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1930s Italian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Straw, Beech
1930s American Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Textile, Wood
1930s Czech Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Wood
Mid-20th Century French Modern Dining Room Chairs
Faux Leather, Oak
1950s Italian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Cane, Beech
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Ash
20th Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Walnut
1960s American Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Faux Leather, Birch
2010s American Modern Dining Room Chairs
Leather, Oak
Mid-20th Century American Modern Dining Room Chairs
Naugahyde, Walnut
Early 20th Century American Modern Dining Room Chairs
Walnut
1930s Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Cotton, Mahogany
1930s Austrian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Velvet, Walnut
1930s American Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Velvet, Wood
2010s Italian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Wood
1930s Austrian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Beech
1930s Austrian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Bentwood
1930s Swedish Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Pine
1930s Czech Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Upholstery, Hardwood
1930s Finnish Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Birch
1930s French Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Beech
1930s English Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Oak
1930s French Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
1930s Austrian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Beech, Bentwood, Plywood
1930s Finnish Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
1930s Polish Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
1930s Italian Vintage Modern Dining Room Chairs
Silk, Wood