A Chair or Two
The Molded Plywood Lounge Chair, LCW, designed by Ray and Charles Eames is one of
my favorite pieces of furniture. The Eames' were a phenomenal team. They created some of the mid-century's most innovative furniture, art, textiles, graphics and films. The LCW was one of their experiments with plywood that turned into a great product. Utilitarian in concept, it is a very thought-out, beautifully engineered and designed chair. They put a lot of thought into the human body, its form and shape, and used that as their guide for molding plywood into forms that were meant to fit our shape, rather than the chair shape us. It has a dynamic graphic outline.
The Eames' designed for the Herman Miller company, a long standing arbiter of high
caliber furniture design. One of their other great leaps forward, was the 1956 leather upholstered lounge chair. Made of plywood and covered in leather, the segments of the back, seat and arms, were once again designed to give the sitter the most comfortable experience in seating. It is a wonderful chair to sit and relax in. Because of the meticulous attention to detail and manufacture, it is one of those pieces of furniture that can be handed down from generation to generation. It was produced for the higher end market, and can be purchased today for around $3500., so it isn't for the average shopper, but as worthy as a painting that someone plans on as an investment. An original, at auction, brought $7,000.
Mies van der Rohe, one of the giants of 20th century architecture, once said,
"A chair is a very difficult object to design. A skyscraper is almost easier, that is why Chippendale is famous." Well, Mies not only designed some of the most famous buildings on the planet, he also designed furniture. The Barcelona chair, is so named, because it was to be placed in a pavilion Mies designed for the German government at the 1929 International Exposition held in Barcelona, Spain.
It is, for me, one of the most elegant pieces of furniture ever created. Much like a piece
of modern art, I suppose you have to be versed in the language of modern design to fully appreciate this chair, but it is a stunner. If you ever have a chance to see it in person, take the time to look closely at the sweep of the leg to the back, the simple structure that is joined so seamlessly your eye isn't distracted by welded, or screwed joints. The high polish of the stainless steel is contrasted with the luxurious leather upholstery. Unfortunately, Mies hit the nail on head about the difficulty of the designing a chair; unlike the Eames' his is not one of the most comfortable piece of furniture I've ever sat in. So, perhaps it fails as a chair in the strictness sense of the word, but it is still a true work of art.
A contemporary of Mies' from the German Bauhuas Institute, was Marcel Breuer.
Also an architect, Breuer designed one of today's more recognizable chairs, the Wassily. Using a new and modern product, steel tubing, Breuer manipulated the industrial material to provide the structural integrity and visual interest of his chair. Steel tubing is very lightweight but incredibly strong given its size. Like Mies he wrapped his stainless steel in leather, but to different effect; the Wassily seat, back and arm, appear much stiffer.
Mid-century modernism is very popular these days as a decorating style of choice.
One of the pitfalls of a style becoming a commodity for mass consumption, is that some of the classic designs of the period become shells of their former selves to made affordable as a mass produced item. I suppose that most of the buying public isn't interested in authenticity as much as they are accessibility, but the furniture, as well as the design, suffers. When you see an authentic, or licensed reproduction, of a Barcelona chair and compare it to the knock-off, with screw heads at the joints, one layer of stainless, and Naugahyde upholstery, it makes me cringe. There are classic pieces of furniture that should be treated as just that - classics.
Posted by designslinger at 5/29/2008 12:40 AM 
Categories: Interior Design, Furniture, Decorative Arts
Categories: Interior Design, Furniture, Decorative Arts
Having grown up with the original Eames/Herman Miller chair, the Barcelona chair (which my aunt and uncle still have) and a few other designers I shan't mention due to my incapacity to correctly spell their names, I couldn't agree more, they were and ARE still works of art!
couldn't agree more about the Barcelona chair. I have my own homage site to it!
Bravo!
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Wow! What a great compliment. Thanks!!!
This is my first time at your blog and I've really enjoyed looking around. I will come back again in the future to check out some of the other articles.
Thanks for the compliment and the visit. We look forward to your return!