Description
Book SynopsisThe 20th century furniture is hot. American Furniture Designers: 1900 to the Present highlights the furniture produced by the 20 most important American furniture designers of the 20th and early 21st centuries plus a selection of the best-known European designers whose work is sold by Knoll International and Herman Miller. The designers are organized into five chapters. Introductions to each section summarize the evolution of furniture design as it evolved through the 20th and early 21st centuries. The book begins with the Arts and Crafts era before World War I; moves into the interwar period when Modernism gained a foothold in America; continues through the Postwar heyday of Mid-century Modern; highlights the furniture from the 1970s and into the 21st century with a focus on the foremost promoters of modern furniture, Knoll International and Herman Miller; and concludes with a selection of the top Studio Furniture makers and their innovative creations.
The book focuses on the leading American designers from each of these periods including Gustav Stickley and Charles Rohlfs during the Arts and Crafts movement, Paul Frankl and Gilbert Rohde in the interwar period, Charles and Ray Eames and George Nelson for Mid- century Modern, and Wendell Castle and George Nakashima for Studio Furniture to name just a few. All their furniture is explained and profusely illustrated with 280 color photos.
For anyone curious about the modern material culture that surrounds them, the book will explain everything about American furniture from 1900 into the 21st century: when it was made, where it was made, who made it, what it was made of, how it was designed, how long it was in production, and how the furniture related to its contemporaries.
Table of ContentsForeword by Christopher Long
Preface
Acknowledgements
I. The American Arts and Crafts Movement: 1900-1916
1. Charles Rohlfs
2. Charles and Henry Greene
3. Gustav Stickley
4. Frank Lloyd Wright
II. Modernism: A Tough Sell in America: 1920-1940
5. Paul Frankl
6. Gilbert Rohde
7. Kem Weber
8. Donald Deskey
III. Mid-Century Modern: 1940s through the 1970s
9. George Nelson
10. Charles and Ray Eames
11. Florence Knoll
12. Edward J Wormley
13. Russel Wright
14. Paul Evans
IV. Modernism, Postmodernism, and into the 21st Century: Knoll International and Herman Miller
15. Knoll Designers after Florence Knoll: 1965 to the Present
16. Herman Miller Designers post George Nelson: 1972 to the Present
V. Studio Furniture
17. George Nakashima
18. Sam Maloof
19. Wendell Castle
20. Garry Knox Bennett
21. Tommy Simpson
22. John Cederquist
Annotated Bibliography
About the Author
