Modern Cupboards
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
2010s Belgian Modern Cupboards
Aluminum
2010s Belgian Modern Cupboards
Stone, Aluminum
2010s Belgian Modern Cupboards
Aluminum
2010s Belgian Modern Cupboards
Aluminum
2010s Belgian Modern Cupboards
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Cupboards
Wood, Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Cupboards
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Cupboards
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Dutch Modern Cupboards
Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Cupboards
Wood, Porcelain
20th Century American Modern Cupboards
Mirror, Wood
19th Century French Antique Modern Cupboards
Carrara Marble, Ormolu
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Modern Cupboards
Metal
2010s American Modern Cupboards
Brass
Early 1900s British Antique Modern Cupboards
Oak
Early 20th Century Chinese Modern Cupboards
Wood, Lacquer
1930s American Vintage Modern Cupboards
Steel
Early 2000s American Modern Cupboards
Oak
1920s Belgian Vintage Modern Cupboards
Wood
1910s Austrian Vintage Modern Cupboards
Oak
19th Century English Antique Modern Cupboards
Wood
1940s French Vintage Modern Cupboards
Glass, Oak
Mid-19th Century Chinese Antique Modern Cupboards
Wood, Lacquer, Paint
2010s Belgian Modern Cupboards
Aluminum
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Cupboards
Steel
1960s American Vintage Modern Cupboards
Wood
2010s American Modern Cupboards
Steel
Late 20th Century Modern Cupboards
Mid-20th Century French Modern Cupboards
Metal
1940s British Vintage Modern Cupboards
Zinc
21st Century and Contemporary Danish Modern Cupboards
Wood