Barcelona Chair, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Knoll, Tan Leather, Ralph Lauren

Design by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for Knoll, Barcelona chair<br />
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The Barcelona chair is one of the most iconic and celebrated designs of the 20th century. This chair is a derivative version which has come from the Ralph Lauren Store Collection where it was used as a display model in London.<br />
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The chair has a curved, polished, chrome frame. The tan leather seat and back cushions each have 20 individual panels with central tufts and piping. The cushions are attached to the frame with studs at the base and straps and buckles. The chair does not have a manufacturer's mark and it was most likely made in the 1990s.<br />
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Measures: Width 76cm, back height 75cm, seat height 42cm, depth 74cm<br />
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Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was the last director of the Bauhaus before the Nazis closed the school and he fled to America. He designed the Knoll Barcelona chair, with the assistance of modernist designer Lilly Reich, for the Barcelona Pavilion in 1929. Through their incorporation, "Mies sought a formal a solution to accompany the free-standing walls and planes of the Barcelona Pavilion," intended to symbolize the new progressive spirit of the Weimar Republic. Mies said that the design had to be more than a chair, but "a monumental object." As organizational elements, the chairs and accompanying stools were positioned throughout the pavilion as fixed pieces. Aware that King Alfonso XIII would be in attendance, Mies also famously said that the Barcelona chair would be 'fit for a king,' giving way to the misconception Barcelona chair was designed as a monarchic object.<br />
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Provenance: Ralph Lauren Store Collection, Display Model.