From Bauhaus to Pop

    Marcel Breuer was an architect and designer who graduated from the Bauhaus in 1924. Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Walter Gropius were a huge influence in his professional life. By the late 1930’s his reputation in Europe was based upon his invention of tubular steel furniture. All of this furniture was inspired from his beloved metal bicycle frame.

    Above is a picture that I took myself at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. It is Marcel Breuers’ famous chair the Wassily from the 1930. It is made from chromium-plated pipe, varnished in plywood. The chair is supported on tubular metal runners. The seat, back and armrests are of simple black canvas. This was one of the first tubular chairs to be created. It was a new technology at the time to bend tubes. At the time most chairs were made with a wooden frame and covered in fabric, so this idea was very revolutionary. The chair has slight curves at the edges, which keep the chair stable and the ends of the metal tube are finished with chrome cap, and not a black plastic cap how we see today in many designs. This makes it very well finished. The screw fittings are black and not metal colour. It looks like it is a very comfortable chair, ideal to put in an office or in a living room. Its’ straight lines makes it a bit formal. Wassily is still being produced by many companies, and there are different versions with different colours and materials.

These are different reproductions from today of the Wassily chair:

    Design changes really quickly by time, and it adjusts itself depending on the lifestyle of the era. From Wassily of the 1930 to the 1978 were Alessandro Mendini designed the Proust chair. It is a very different design, and it defiantly screams out the words ‘Pop Design’. Basically, what Mendini did was the creation of a chair very similar to the ones from Neo-Baroque; and hand painted dots to the whole chair. It is a very colourful and fun looking chair. This chair would defenately be a main attraction in a room. Unlike Breuer design which is very stiff, this has a lot of curves and circular shapes and details around the frame. This is the chair I am talking about:

Bibliography:

2013 The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1988.256

2010 http://www.designophy.com/designpedia/design-designer-1000000016-alessandro-mendini.htm

All seen on the 7th of December 2013