Modernism

The departure from tradition started the age of modernism between 1925 - 1945; it was the birth of modern furniture design. Even though modern furniture had previously been experimented with, it really started to blossom during this time.

The modernist style was pioneered through great technological breakthroughs of the period into the fields of artistic endeavor and cultural production, pushing the boundaries of what was artistically possible. Dramatic works became part of what we know today as modern and contemporary furniture, created by some of the most innovative furniture designers in history.

Designers from the Modernism Era

Charles Eames 1907-1978
Charles Ormond Eames, Jr was born in 1907 in Saint Louis, Missouri. Charles married his second wife Ray in 1941 and their design work is since knows as Charles and Ray Eames are among the most important American designers of this century. They are best known for their groundbreaking contributions to architecture and furniture design. They moved to California where they worked together on furniture styles with molding plywood.

In the 1950s, he concentrated architecture and modern furniture design, pioneering innovative technologies, such as the fiberglass and plastic resin chairs and the wire mesh chairs designed for Herman Miller.

He is best know for his designs of the Eames-Saarinen Kleinhans chair (1939), the Eames-Saarinen organic chair (1941), LCW (Lounge Chair Wood) (1945), Eames Plywood Side Chair (1946), La chaise (1948), Eames RAR (Rocker Armchair Rod) Rocker (1948), Eames Eiffel Plastic Side Chair (1950), Eames Eiffel Plastic Armchair (1950), Eames Desk and Storage Units (1950), Eames Desk and Storage Units (1950), Eames Sofa Compact (1954), Eames lounge chair and ottoman (1956), Eames Aluminum Management Chair (1958), Eames Aluminum Side Chair (1958), Eames Aluminum Ottoman (1958), Eames Walnut Stool Shape A & B (1960) and the Eames tandem sling seating (1962).

But furniture wasn’t all that the Eameses designed, they also conceived and designed a number of landmark exhibitions and even a molded plywood splint (1942) for the US military and a molded plywood nose cone and other parts for the CG-16 (flying flatcar) glider in 1943.

Eero Saarinen 1910-1961
Eero Saarinen was born in Kirkkonummi, Finland in 1910. His education took place in Paris, and later in the United States, at Yale University. Much of his work shows a relation to sculpture as he initially pursued sculpture as his art of choice. However, he eventually decided to become an architect instead.

In fact, his architecture was so good, that Saarinen came to attention for his 1948 competition-winning design for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. He also designed the famous expressionis' concrete shell of the TWA Flight Center, and other important commissions.

His design in interiors and furniture were in a curving, theatrical, futuristic style. Saarinen developed a remarkable range which depended on color, form and materials. He showed a marked dependence on innovative structures and sculptural forms, but not at the cost of pragmatic considerations. He easily moved back and forth between the international style and expressionism.

Saarinen is now considered one of the masters of American 20th Century architecture. In his furniture designs, his best know style is probably the Tulip Chair which he designed in 1956 for the Knoll Company of New York City. The Womb Chair is another one of his famous creations, in which the chair is enveloping a lap-like form. This continues to be one of the most iconic and recognized representations of mid-century Scandinavian Organic Modernism. In fact, ask most designers and architects what lounge chair design they covet and they’ll promptly tell you it’s the Womb Chair.

Eileen Gray 1878-1976
Originally an Irish lacquer artist, she turned furniture designer and was one of the pioneers who created what we now call modern furniture design during the 1920s and 1930s.

She loved to incorporate luxurious lacquer work into stark international style aesthetics. Her tubular steel furniture was revolutionary in its day, seen in her famous Bibendum Chair, now being accepted as a classic.

Later, Eileen Gray switched to architecture and continued producing masterpieces. She was an artist of epoch-making significance. Her career culminated in 1972 with her appointment by the Royal Society of Art in London, as Royal Designer to Industry. Her legendary Adjustable Table E 1027 is displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the museum purchased her archive for €1.142 million in June 2000.

Gerrit Rietveld 1888-1964
In 1911, Rietveld started his own furniture factory, while studying architecture. He is known for his famous Red and Blue Chair in 1918, influenced by the 'De Stijl' movement, of which he became a member in 1919, the same year in which he became an architect. In 1924 he designed the Schröder house for Truus Schröder-Schräder, with whom he cooperated. The house, while guided by geometric forms, is asymmetrical.

Rietveld broke with the 'De Stijl' movement in 1928 and switched to the Nieuwe Zakelijkheid. The same year he joined the Congres Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne. Another one of his famous design includes the Zigzag Chair.

Gino Sarfatti 1912-1985
Born in Venice in 1912 he worked in the lighting sector and set up Arteluce, which soon became a national and international reference point for the modern architecture movement in lighting. He produced over 400 luminaries and carried out non-stop research into innovation as regards typology, materials, production technologies, light sources, technical lighting effects and design aspects.

In the course of their work, Gino Sarfatti and Arteluce won numerous prizes and awards including the Compasso d'Oro in 1954 and 1955, and the Honorary Diploma of the Milan Triennale.

Le Corbusier 1887-1965
He was born as Charles-Edouard Jeanneret in La Chaux-de-Fonds, a small town of Neuchâtel Switzerland. Often known simply as "Corbu," he was one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. At the age of 18, he completed his first architectural project; a house in La Chaux-de-Fonds. By 1917 he opened his own architecture office in Paris, eventually changing his name to Le Corbusier in the early 1920’s.

Between 1922 and 1925, Le Corbusier published the progressive tract “Contemporary City for Three Million Inhabitants” in L’Esprit Nouveau, and a few years thereafter, he built the Pavillion de L’Esprit Nouveau for the Exposition des Art Decoratifs at Industriels Modernes.

In 1928 Le Corbusier and Perriand began to put the expectations for furniture Le Corbusier outlined in his 1925 book L'Art Décoratif d'aujourd'hui into practice. they began developing forward-looking furniture that included the famous B306 chair and the Gran Confort Chaise Longue.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1886-1969
A German architect, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture and was responsible for creating some of the period’s most iconic furniture. He began his architectural career as an apprentice at the studio of Peter Behrens. His talent was quickly recognized and he soon began independent commissions. His dedication to Functionalism was allied with an instinct for graceful form. This combination, and his exacting eye for detail, has made his furniture among the most enduring of the modern era.

He joined the architecture faculty of the avant-garde Bauhaus Design School, and designed modern furniture pieces using new industrial technologies that have become popular classics, such as the Barcelona Chair, which was created for the King of Spain.

In 1937, Mies left Germany and eventually moved to Chicago to head an architectural school. Although at this he almost completely stopped designing furniture, he did go on to design buildings in the Unites States and Canada, his most significant projects being Farnsworth House in Illinois, and the Seagram Building in New York.

Marcel Breuer 1902-1981
As a furniture designer, he was an influential modernist. One of the fathers of Modernism, Breuer showed a great interest in modular construction and simple forms. He studied and taught at Bauhaus in the 1920s, and eventually became the head of the carpentry shop there. Later in Berlin, he began to design tubular metal furniture pieces, replicas of which are still in production today. He may be best known for his design of the Wassily Chair, the first tubular bent-steel chair, designed in 1925 for Wassily Kandinsky and inspired in part by bicycle handlebars.

In the 1930's, he moved to London where he obtained employment by Jack Pritchard at the Isokon company; one of the earliest introducers of modern design to the United Kingdom. Breuer designed his Long Chair and started to experiment with bent and formed plywood.

Mart Stam 1899-1986
A Dutch architect, urban planner, and chair designer at the Bauhaus. Upon moving to Berlin, Stam constructed a prototype of a cantilevered chair made of welded gas pipes and plumber's elbow joints. With this, he started the revolution of creating a radically new profile for chairs, dining tables, coffee tables and desks. The industrial material also transformed expectations of the domestic environment from one characterized by bulky upholstered chairs and sofas to one of cool, clean simplicity.

His concept also inspired Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Marcel Breuer, and Eileen Gray, and began an entire genre of chair designs. However, it is Stam's cantilevered chair with its flexible tubular steel frame that has won him a reputation as one of the great designers of the 20th century.