Pair of Wicker Chairs by Eero Aarnio
View Similar Items
Pair of Wicker Chairs by Eero Aarnio
About the Item
- Creator:Eero Aarnio (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 26 in (66.04 cm)Diameter: 34 in (86.36 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Style:Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses.
- Seller Location:Dorchester, MA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU83781670852
Eero Aarnio
“I always look ahead, never back,” Finnish design legend Eero Aarnio has been quoted as saying. A leading innovator of modern furniture design, Aarnio has long embraced a bold, playful, confident and colorful style several steps ahead of his time.
For his 1954 entrance test for the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, Aarnio created a whimsical painting of a man reading a newspaper in a red, curved chair whose silhouette foreshadowed Aarnio’s Ball chair of 1963. That spherical seat skyrocketed him to design fame, and decades later, it is still recognized as one of the world’s most futuristic designs.
Born in 1932 to a house painter and a seamstress, Aarnio has always had a cheerful disposition and an independent spirit. He went his own way early on: After just two years at Asko, the big Scandinavian furniture company that originally produced his Ball chair, Aarnio established his own studio in 1962.
Over the next decade, the young visionary made an indelible mark on the world. Open-minded and entrepreneurial, Aarnio embraced the aesthetics, materials and technologies of the Swinging Sixties, working with a new generation of plastics and molding them into fluid, organically shaped, brightly hued forms.
Introduced at the 1966 Cologne Furniture Fair, the pod-like fiberglass Ball chair soon adorned the homes of movie stars and royalty, graced magazine covers around the world and was featured in films and ads. The groundbreaking seat originally came in orange, white, black, yellow and red and could be ordered with a telephone installed in it. Yet this designer of the future, as he was known in the 1960s, has always insisted that he didn’t deliberately seek to be associated with the decade’s sci-fi aesthetic.
“I had no intention to create either pop or Space Age design — as many people label my work,” Aarnio declares in one of the essays included in Eero Aarnio — Designer of Colour and Joy, a book jointly created by the Design Museum and publisher WSOY to accompany 2016’s “Eero Aarnio” exhibition.
The show featured a number of Aarnio’s objects, including his iconic Ball, Pastil (1967), Bubble (1968), Tomato (1971) and Pony (1973) chairs. These were joined by lesser-known seating and other objects like the rattan Juttujakkara, or mushroom, stool (1960); the sculptural Double Bubble lamp (2000), with which Aarnio first explored the possibilities of rotation-cast plastic; and the three-legged Rocket (1995) and Baby Rocket (2006) stools, both parts of a collection produced by Artek after Tom Dixon, the company’s creative director from 2004 to 2009, discovered the original piece in Aarnio’s kitchen.
“Aarnio expanded the whole idea of what constitutes furniture,” explained Suvi Saloniemi, the Design Museum’s chief curator. “His significance as a designer is crystallized in the liberation of form that he has introduced by discovering the properties of plastic as the material of a designer. His furniture is sculpture-like and eye-catching, but the pieces are always utilitarian at the same time.”
Find an extraordinary range of vintage Eero Aarnio chairs, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Tipi Chair by Eero Aarnio for AdeltaBy Adelta, Eero AarnioLocated in Dorchester, MACreated in 2002 by the Finnish designer Eero Aarnio for the German manufacturer Adelta, the Tipi Chair is an imaginative interpretation of what might consti...Category
Early 2000s German Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Pair of Armless Lounge Chairs by Florence Knoll for KnollBy Florence Knoll, KnollLocated in Dorchester, MAFlorence Knoll designed these slipper chairs in 1956 as part of a seating group that joined comfort with a clean-lined modernism. The chromed steel frames are canted at back and the ...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Pair of Lounge Chairs, Model 5681, by George Nelson for Herman MillerBy Herman Miller, George NelsonLocated in Dorchester, MADesigned by George Nelson, this pair of clean-lined model 5681 lounge chairs were produced by Herman Miller from 1956 to 1967. Raised on square chrome legs, the upholstered club seat...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsChrome
- Pair of 1930s Ebonized Art Deco Club ChairsLocated in Dorchester, MAThis exuberant pair of European art deco club chairs frame generous, comfortable seats between muscular curves of ebonized wood. They are very solid and in excellent structural con...Category
Vintage 1930s English Art Deco Lounge Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery, Wood
$2,995 / set - Pair of Danish Rosewood and Leather Side ChairsLocated in Dorchester, MAThis elegant pair of Danish modern side chairs features frames of solid rosewood with canted back rests and leather-upholstered seats.Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Rosewood
- Teak Lounge Chair by Folke Ohlsson for DUX of SwedenBy Dux of Sweden, Folke OhlssonLocated in Dorchester, MADesigned by Folke Ohlsson and manufactured by Dux, this Scandinavian Modern lounge chair features an exposed teak frame and a very comfortable deep seat with wide armrests. At one...Category
Vintage 1960s Swedish Scandinavian Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsTeak, Upholstery
$3,600 / item
- Iconic Eero Aarnio Blue Pastil ChairBy Eero AarnioLocated in New York, NYEero Aarnio made the first prototype of the Pastil chair out of polystyrene, which helped him to verify the measurements, ergonomics and rocking ability. ...Category
2010s Finnish Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFiberglass
$3,571 / item - Iconic Eero Aarnio Black Pastil ChairBy Eero AarnioLocated in New York, NYEero Aarnio made the first prototype of the Pastil chair out of polystyrene, which helped him to verify the measurements, ergonomics and rocking ability. ...Category
2010s Finnish Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFiberglass
$3,571 / item - Iconic Eero Aarnio Green Pastil ChairBy Eero AarnioLocated in New York, NYEero Aarnio made the first prototype of the Pastil chair out of polystyrene, which helped him to verify the measurements, ergonomics and rocking ability. ...Category
2010s Finnish Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFiberglass
$3,571 / item - Iconic Eero Aarnio White Pastil ChairBy Eero AarnioLocated in New York, NYEero Aarnio made the first prototype of the Pastil chair out of polystyrene, which helped him to verify the measurements, ergonomics and rocking ability. ...Category
2010s Finnish Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFiberglass
$3,571 / item - Iconic Eero Aarnio Yellow Pastil ChairBy Eero AarnioLocated in New York, NYEero Aarnio made the first prototype of the Pastil chair out of polystyrene, which helped him to verify the measurements, ergonomics and rocking ability. ...Category
2010s Finnish Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFiberglass
$3,571 / item - Iconic Eero Aarnio Orange Pastil ChairBy Eero AarnioLocated in New York, NYEero Aarnio made the first prototype of the Pastil chair out of polystyrene, which helped him to verify the measurements, ergonomics and rocking ability. ...Category
2010s Finnish Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFiberglass
$3,571 / item
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
The 21 Most Popular Mid-Century Modern Chairs
You know the designs, now get the stories about how they came to be.
The Ball Chair, Eero Aarnio’s Space Age Masterpiece, Was Almost Never Made
Now considered emblematic of 1960s mod aesthetics, the Finnish designer's famous creation was far from an overnight success.