Title
Files
Description
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe succeeded Walter Gropius as director of the Bauhaus school in 1930, after Mies had become a pioneer of Modernist metal furniture. The Bauhaus became the seat of the Modernist movement through its efforts to reconcile principles of design with the latest materials in order to mass-produce objects that were handsome, inexpensive, and easy to care for. This MR model chair, designed in 1927, is one of the 20th century’s most influential creations. The bent-steel frame was made to look like one continuous loop of metal tubing, elegantly referring to its manufacture. While Mies van der Rohe was not the first to make a cantilevered chair—meaning one without back legs—he is known for exploiting the qualities of bent metal that give a springy comfort. By mixing woven cane with metal tubing, his design takes on a complexity in which the texture of natural material contrasts markedly with the machined steel frame. 1927
Publication Date
11-25-2014
Publisher
RISD Museum
City
Providence, Rhode Island
Keywords
Rhode Island School of Design Museum; Bauhaus; chair; metal; cantilevered
Disciplines
Industrial and Product Design
Recommended Citation
RISD Museum and Neumann, Dietrich, "Mies van der Rohe Chair" (2014). Channel. 30.
https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/risdmuseum_channel/30