Art-ology

One of the unshared furniture illustrations for the German Pavilion, the Barcelona Chair was Germany’s official entry to the Ibero-American Expo of 1929 held in the city of Barcelona, Spain. The design of the chair was crafted by the world-known Bahaus designer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in alliance with his longtime partner Liliy Reich, who was also a designer and an architect. A highly popular design during its time, the chair is assessed as one of the most popular icons of the modernism movement.

According to its designers, the Barcelona Chair was affected by the campaign and folding chairs of the classical period. The chair has also exposed inspiration from the works of the most acknowledged sculptor George Kolbe. Because of its change of regal design into a modern setting, the chair and its designers instantaneously garnered adulation of critics during the Ibero-American Expo, calling the chair “a design worthy of kings”. Also, the chair was produced with the Bahaus idea in mind, including the concept of giving well-designed furnishings and residences for the common man. However, given the chair’s mind-blowing price of $6,281 at that time, it seemed conflicting to this sentiment.

The frame of the Barcelona Chair was basically designed to be bolted together but was later improved during the 1950s to incorporate stainless steel, granting the frame to be composed using a complete piece of metal. This gave the chair a shiny appearance as well as the additional bonus of being corrosion-resistant due to the stainless steel’s properties. The chair’s upholstery was also originally made of ivory colored pigskin, but was later reacquired by bovine leather.

The Barcelona Chair was originally constructed in fixed stock within the United States and among European countries during 1930s and late 1950s. Then in 1953, six years after the death of Lilly Reich, Miers van der Rohe relinquish his rights and his name on the design.

The Barcelona Chair’s practical design and appropriate elements were absorbed by Mies van der Rohe in Spain. Germany and the United States of America during the 1930s, but it has long since terminated. This led to the explosion of Barcelona Chair designs being manufactured worldwide to keep up with the request of collectors and modernist aficionados alike.

Today, the Barcelona Chair is generally constructed in two distinct types of steel: chrome and stainless. The chairs are almost completely done by hand, with absolute machining reservations on several parts of the body.