Marcel Breuer Furniture Collection
Breuer, Marcel
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Date
1925-1936Description
Fauteuil B3 (B3 Chair, also known as the Wassily chair, 1925); nickel-plated steel threaded tubing with cotton canvas seat; Soon after enrolling at the Bauhaus at Weimar, Breuer became an outstanding student in the carpentry workshop, which he led in its endeavours to find radically innovative forms for modern furniture. In practice, this meant rejecting traditional forms. Breuer interpreted the De Stijl aesthetic in his designs, which were characterized by asymmetry, discrete elements and a tendency to view the design of a chair, for example, as an architectural experiment. In spring 1925 Breuer began to experiment with tubular steel, beginning with his Wassily chair. Breuer’s best-known side chair is the B32 (1928) in chrome-plated steel, wood, and cane, which is still mass-produced. He also produced tables, for example in steel tube and wood. Breuer negotiated privately to secure marketing by Standard-Möbel, which in April 1929 was bought up by the manufacturer Thonet. Breuer eventually sold his furniture collection to the Italian design company Gavina SpA. In large part it was the Breuer Collection that motivated Knoll to acquire Gavina in 1968; many of the designs are still in production. Source: Grove Art Online; http://www.oxfordartonline.com/ (accessed 7/16/2015)
Type of Work
seat furniture; table (support furniture)Subject
advertising and industrial design, decorative arts, Twentieth century, Modernist, Bauhaus
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only