Optimum Dessie
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Leather, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Leather, Glass, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Side Tables
Leather, Glass, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Cupboards
Leather, Glass, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Leather, Glass, Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Walnut, Leather, Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Leather, Glass, Walnut
People Also Browsed
2010s American Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Brass, Nickel, Enamel, Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary Spanish Modern Floor Lamps
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and...
Aluminum, Metal, Brass
2010s British Scandinavian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Sheepskin, Oak
2010s British Scandinavian Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Sheepskin, Oak
21st Century and Contemporary Brazilian Modern Dining Room Chairs
Wood
2010s American Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass, Bronze, Nickel
2010s American Modern Stools
Brass
2010s American Modern Table Lamps
Steel, Brass, Silver Leaf
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Nickel
2010s French Modern Chairs
Oak
2010s American Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Australian Rustic Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass
2010s Mexican American Craftsman Center Tables
Hardwood, Oak
2010s Modern Tables
Hardwood, Oak
2010s Indian Post-Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Brass
A Close Look at modern Furniture
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.