| Marcel Breuer Marcel Breuer, designer, Hungary/United States, 1902-1981, Isokon Furniture Co. manufacturer, London, Great Britain 1931-1939 Long chair, 1936, London, Great Britain laminted birch, replacement upholstery, 79.5 x 61.7 x 142.0 cm Gift of James and Diana Ramsay Fund 2003 |
| Marcel Breuer, one of the iconic
Modernist designers of the twentieth century, worked at the famous Bauhaus Design School
from 1920 until 1928, first as a student and then as a master and head of the carpentry
and furniture department. Under the direction of Walter Gropius from 1919, the Bauhaus
principle was to create modern contemporary furniture from modern materials and production
methods. The rise of the Nazi Party saw the Bauhaus branded as a ‘hotbed of cultural Bolshevism’ and was eventually closed. After Breuer reached England in 1935, he met Jack Pritchard, Director of Isokon Furniture (one of only a handful of manufacturers prepared to promote the Modern Movement in Britain), who agreed to produce some of his bent plywood furniture designs. Of Breuer’s Isokon designs, the elegant form-fitting plywood reclining or, Long chair, is the most famous and has become a classic of the twentieth century. The US patent for the Long chair, read: ‘The essence of this invention is the construction of a chair with a resilient plywood or similar sheet material, which itself forms part of and completes a closed chair frame. There is no complete frame until the seat is applied. and by making the chair in this way, striking resilience and comfort are obtained’. Laminated plywood enabled Breuer to create a floating sculptural form, and in the ‘organic’ curves of the Long chair the style of the 1950s was anticipated, when furniture designers were making body-contoured or form-fitting furniture. Breuer once said: ‘I tried always, in my furniture, to find the last solution’, and remaining true to his beliefs, he stopped designing chairs after 1946. This particular Long chair remained in the Pritchard family until acquired by the Gallery through the generous support of Diana Ramsay through the James and Diana Ramsay Fund. August/September 2003 |