marcel breuer's wassily chair
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Jun 22, 2014 01:05 AM
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by
bubba of the bubbles (noreply@blogger.com)
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last modified
Jun 21, 2014
I'm always amazed by how well Modernist furniture designed in the 1920s fits in with our house. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. After all, this furniture was specifically designed for Modern structures at a time when there was no furniture to fit the architecture. Nevertheless, here I stand (and sit?), amazed.
Marcel Breuer in his chair circa 1927.
"This metal furniture is to be nothing more than a necessary device for modern-day living."
A recent acquisition we made was Marcel Breuer's Model B3 Chair, known popularly these days as the Wassily Chair. Designed in 1925 and 1926 while Breuer was the head of the cabinet-making workshop at the Bauhaus (and only 23 years old!), Breuer was inspired by the chrome handlebars of his newly acquired Adler bicycle. His design also echoes neoplasticism, namely Gerrit Rietveld's early de Stijl furniture. It was also the first use of steel tubing in furniture.
1925 Adler (via here). Nice handlebars!
Pleasantly creepy photo by Erich Consemüller of a woman in the B3 club chair wearing a mask by Oskar Schlemmer and a dress in fabric designed by Lis Beyer, 1926.
Original manufactured chair, 1926-1927 at the Vitra Design Museum
Photo of the vintage chair with white canvas from Knoll.
We put the chair in the office, which has a viewscape from the entry and living room along the bookcase. The antique black phone in the rear is from East Germany.