The modernist furniture movement broke with tradition.
Modern furniture design refers to furniture dating from the modernist design movement of the early 19th century, which changed the nature of furniture design.
Characteristics
The Modernist design movement shifted focus from visually heavy to visually light furniture design and from a primarily aesthetic appeal to functionality and accessibility.
Purpose
The government-sponsored Deutscher Werkbund organization in Germany and the De Stijl group in the Netherlands were instrumental in developing the movement, which reflected the the belief that all levels of society could be provided with well-designed, mass-produced goods. The Bauhaus School in Germany put these principles into practice in the 1920s and 1930s.
Materials
Modernist designers introduced non-traditional materials such as steel, molded plywood and plastics.
Japanese Influence
With the relaxation of Japan's isolationist policy at the end of the 19th century, simple and elegant Japanese design came to have a strong influence on the modernist movement.
Mid-Century Modern
Mid-century modern design emerged after World War II and continued to flourish in both the United States and Europe, particularly Scandinavia, until the mid-1960s. Furniture of this design features clean, simple lines and organic shapes, with materials including fiberglass, cast aluminum and acrylics. Many of the iconic designers, such as Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Isamu Noguchi had backgrounds in architecture.
