Modern Contemporary Art
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1980s French Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
Mid-20th Century Austrian Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
1970s French Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Stainless Steel
Late 20th Century Austrian Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
1970s French Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Wood, Paper
20th Century Mexican Modern Contemporary Art
Silver Leaf
1970s American Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Metal
2010s British Modern Contemporary Art
Glass, Wood, Paper
1980s American Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Wood, Paper
1980s American Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
20th Century American Modern Contemporary Art
Paint
1980s Spanish Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Brass
Mid-20th Century Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
Mid-20th Century American Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
20th Century Modern Contemporary Art
Metal
1960s Hungarian Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
20th Century North American Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
1970s French Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Wood, Paper
Late 20th Century Austrian Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
1970s French Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Silk, Wood
Mid-20th Century Austrian Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
1980s American Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
1980s Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Glass, Paper
1970s French Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
1970s American Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Paper
Mid-20th Century American Modern Contemporary Art
Late 20th Century American Modern Contemporary Art
Aluminum
Late 20th Century French Modern Contemporary Art
1970s French Vintage Modern Contemporary Art
Fabric, Glass