The Modern Chair Classics In Production

In this profusely illustrated study, a noted furniture designer brings together more than 40 examples of chairs that combine practicality and elegance to transcend the confines of period and fashion. Featured are such modern "classics" as Thonet's Bentwood armchair, Breuer's Wassily chair, van der Rohe's Barcelone chair, and many more. Each chair is described in detail with the aid of photographs, Mr. Meadmore's own explanatory drawings and some reproductions of the original designer's plans. The author also explores the ways in which the designers approached and solved inherent problems of function and aesthetics. The scale drawings in this book are all one-eighth of full size, allowing easy assessment of dimensions and visual comparison of size and proportion. Many of these chairs are housed in museum collections; others are still being produced today. Now, this inexpensive edition of The Modern Chair enables students of furniture and any interested reader to make a thorough study of the most important chairs of modern times.

"Clement Meadmore brings together more than thirty 'classic' modern chairs which are still in production, describing each in detail with the aid of photographs and his own explanatory drawings and some original designers' drawings, and examines the ways in which the designers approached and solved the functional and aesthetic problems involved in the design of each chair. The plans and elevations of the chairs are shown at a constant scale of one eighth full size, so that the dimensions can be easily ascertained and visual comparisons of size and proportion made"--Back cover.

This updated edition features designs from 1800 up to present day, and features the biggest names in furniture design, art, architecture and craft.

This book showcases over 40 chairs that have become twentieth-century classics and offers an introduction to their designers and to the designers' other work.

The chair—you’re likely sitting in one right now. Yet, despite its common presence in offices, restaurants, and homes, we very rarely stop to think about the origins of the chair and its place in culture. After all, the human body is actually more suited to sitting on the ground than on a chair; and as a result, chairs often cause back problems. Nonetheless, in Western culture, as Anne Massey explains, the chair is an object that marks our place in the modern world. Massey explores how, particularly in the last hundred years, the chair has become a revered object of design. Certain chairs have become iconic—like the Eames Lounge chair and Verner Panton’s S Chair, which are photographed, exhibited in art museums, and slavishly copied by cheaper models. Other chairs have reached iconic status simply through their everydayness—think of Van Gogh’s chair or the way Shaker chairs have become emblematic of a simpler and purer lifestyle. Massey further examines how chairs have been crafted, from local to global manufacture. In doing so she elucidates the meaning of the chair in contemporary culture, as well as the development, design, and manufacture of this ubiquitous object. Drawing on design, art, popular culture, and personal experience, Chair is an engaging and informative biography of this everyday object and will appeal to anyone interested in why we choose to sit on the chairs we do.