Modern Furniture Designers

Modernism in the world of furniture represents the evolution of furniture design from that which values visual weight, ancestral tradition and handcrafting to an aesthetic that is light, minimalist and innovative. This shift took place in the late 19th through early 20th centuries.

Increasingly the focus furniture was around function and accessibility and an aesthetic that evoked images of the present and future as opposed to paying homage to the past. The new philosophies emerged from such creative hotbeds as the Werkbund and the Bauhaus School, and was also influenced by the artists and designers of that era. The use of new materials, such as steel, molded plywood and plastics, were instrumental to the realization of this new design philosophy.

An influential Hungarian-born Modernist, Breuer studied and taught at the famed Bauhaus. He worked around the globe from Berlin, where he lived until the rise of Nazism, to his escape to London and eventually to New York City where he would ultimately live the rest of his life. His best known design was the bent tubular steel chair known as the Wassily Chair, designed in 1925 and alleged to have been inspired by the curved tubular steel handlebars on Breuer's own Adler bicycle. He would later adopt concrete as his most prominent medium and be considered a leading practitioner of a style known as Brutalism.

A German born pioneer of modern architecture, Mies, like some of his more forward thinking contemporaries, sought to define his era with an architectural style that emphasized simplicity and clarity. His buildings made efficient use of modern materials such as industrial steel and plate glass to produce an effect that was elegant, free-flowing and open.

Mies, as he was known to students and colleagues alike, brought his pioneering style to bear on such structures as the Farnsworth House, outside Chicago, the Lakeshore Drive Apartments, the Seagram Building, a high-rise in New York City and his final work, the Neue Nationalgalerie art museum, the New National Gallery, in Berlin.

Kathleen Eileen Moray Gray was an Irish furniture designer and architect, a pioneer of the Modern Movement in architecture. Eileen Gray’s innovative Bibendum Chair was considered to be one of the 20th century’s most recognizable furniture designs. Its combination back-and-arm rest consists of two semi-circular, padded tubes encased in soft leather. The name is alleged to originate from the character created by Michelin to sell tires, now better known as the Michelin Man.

In February 2009, a "Dragons" armchair made by Gray between 1917-1919 was sold at auction in Paris for 21.9 million euros (US$28.3 million), setting an auction record for 20th century decorative art.

Originally named Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris, Le Corbusier was a Swiss-French architect, designer, urban planner, and furniture designer – famous as an innovator of what now is called Modern architecture or the International Style. He was born in Switzerland, but became a French citizen in his 30s.

He was a pioneer in studies of modern high design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. His career spanned five decades, and his buildings were constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, and he built one each in North and South America. A true modern Renaissance man, he was also a painter, sculptor and writer.

Lilly Reich was a German modernist designer. She was a close collaborator with Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe for more than a decade. In 1912 she joined the Deutscher Werkbund, a government sponsored organization dedicated to the promotion of German-made products and designs.

In 1920 she was made the first woman director of the Deutsche Werkbund, with the responsibility of planning and curating design exhibits to promote German designers. It was through her involvement with the Werkbund that Lilly Reich would meet Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe. In 1926 she moved from Frankfurt to Berlin to work with Mies. She was Van Der Rohe's personal and professional partner for 13 years from 1925 until his emigration to the US in 1938.

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as a true pioneering master of modern architecture. Gropius could not draw, and was dependent on collaborators and partner-interpreters throughout his career.

In 1919 Gropius transformed the Grand-Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts in Weimar into the world famous Bauhaus, attracting a faculty which included Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, Josef Albers, Herbert Bayer, László Moholy-Nagy, Otto Bartning and Wassily Kandinsky. Students there were taught to use modern and innovative materials and mass-produced fittings, often originally intended for industrial settings, in order to create original furniture and buildings.