|
Written by
Monique Stern
 |
This exceptional piece of modern furniture offers a unique
synthesis of good taste and luxury.
Designed by Mies Van der
Rohe and his long-time partner and companion, Lilly Reich, the
Barcelona Chair is mostly misattributed to Mies alone.
It is
perhaps difficult to comprehend today, but this icon of
modernist style was actually designed in 1929. |
| |
|
|
Mies was commissioned by the
German Government to design the German Pavilion at the
Barcelona World Arts Fair at Montjuic in Spain. The
building itself is perhaps the epitome of modernity.
Shockingly modern even by today’s standards, it must
have looked positively futuristic to the fair's visitors
of the day. Built of glass, steel and three types of
marble, its linear simplicity is characterized by great
flowing expanses, utilizing unbroken planes of each
material, juxtaposed with one another. |
|
Lilly Reich
Courtesy of The
Furniture Collection |
|
| |
|
 |
|
Having completed the design for
the building, Mies and Lilly began work on the furniture for
its interior. In an interview the year following the fair Mies
said the following regarding chair design: "The chair is a
very difficult object. Everyone who has ever tried to make one
knows that. There are endless possibilities and many problems
- the chair has to be light, it has to be strong, it has to be
comfortable. It is almost easier to build a skyscraper than a
chair." Mies 1930.
Mies in the doorway of the Riehl
house, 1910 - Courtesy of the Museum of Modern Art, New York |
|
| |
|
The exhibition was an
occasion of international importance, attended by the
Spanish Royal family, as well as many government
officials from around Europe. Mies was well aware of
this significance and of the challenges that faced him
when he set about designing the chair for the Pavilion,
he commented at the time that this was to be, "An
important chair, a very elegant chair and costly. It had
to be monumental. You couldn't just use a kitchen
chair." Mies 1929. |
| |
The Barcelona Chair
Originally designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
for the German National Pavilion
1929 Barcelona International Exhibition
|
|
The chair he designed for the
Pavilion is said to have been inspired by both the folding
chairs of the Pharaohs and the X-shaped footstools of the
Romans. This regal and formal lineage was quite fitting and
was no doubt intentional, affording this modern design an
intellectual and cultural weight that would have been all the
more obvious in such a futuristic environment.
Indeed the Barcelona chairs became thrones when the Spanish
Royals visited the German Pavilion and sat in them for a time.
They were the only chairs in the whole building.
The originals predated stainless
steel and seamless (ground) welds so the legs had to be
bolted together. The leather used in those first
examples was pigskin and the color of the chairs in the
Pavilion was ivory. But today’s Barcelona chair is not
so very different. Mies redesigned the chair in 1950,
three years after the death of Lilly Reich, making use
of the newly developed material, stainless steel. This
allowed the frame to be formed from a single piece of
metal, and so it was that the bolts of the original were
replaced by the smooth lines that we know and love
today.
The Barcelona chair, sometimes referred to as the Pavilion
chair, quickly gained a reputation as a design worthy of
kings. It went into commercial production almost immediately
and has remained in production ever since. |
| |
|
Philosophically, mid-century modernists including Mies
generally subscribed to the idea that modern furniture
should be accessible to the masses, both financially and
aesthetically. However, the Barcelona chair is an
exception to this rule. The materials and construction
are expensive and labor intensive; therefore too costly
to make the chair widely accessible. Furthermore, its
regal bearing and associations with royalty gave it an
instant cache, which has grown rather than diminished
with time. As a result, it has endeared itself to the
rich, famous and wealthy; rather than to the masses. |
|
© Werner Blaser - Courtesy of the Whitney Museum of American Art |
|
| |
|
The rest of the Barcelona range was not designed by Mies, but true
to his design, the designers used the same style legs, and the same
type of quilted and piped leather upholstery. The high quality
leather (cow rather than pig skin today) is individually hand sewn,
requiring some 28 hours of highly skilled labor to produce. |
| |
|
|
|
|
