Thonet Furniture, 1830-1953 : an Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
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Thonet furniture, 1830-1953 : an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York Author Thonet Industries Date 1953 Publisher [publisher not identified] Exhibition URL www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1722 The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition history—from our founding in 1929 to the present—is available online. It includes exhibition catalogues, primary documents, installation views, and an index of participating artists. MoMA © 2017 The Museum of Modern Art LIBRARY THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART Received; N / V )' THONET 830-1953 / anexhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York ! 18RAP ' \t A:^r Artc/it{/£ Wt?c * » T H O N E T furniture 1830-1953 an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York This filmstrip is presented by Thonet Industries, Inc. on the occasion of their 100th anniversary in America 1853-1953 11/ ^ A s/fv- THONETFURNITURE An Exhibitionat the Museumof ModernArt, New York This filmstripconsists of 4l frames,of which 8 are from printedsources and 33 are actualviews of the exhibitionand of furniturefeatured in the exhibition. The filmstripis dividedinto four main sections:VIEWS OF THE EXHIBITION, BENTWOODFURNITURE, TUBULAR STEEL FURNITURE, and MOLDEDPLYWOOD FURNITURE. Below is a detailedlist with appropriatedata for each frame. Fullercommentar,/ will be found in the accompanyingmanual. VIEWS OF THE EXHIBITION Five views of the exhibitionas installedat the Museumof ModernArt (Frames4-8) BENTWOOD Title (Frame9) Bentwoodspiral made from a tree trunk dramaticallydemonstrates the possibilitiesof the bentwoodprocess (Frame10_) FirstBent VeneerChair, l336-l84o. Owned by Mrs. F. Thonet, Vienna (Frame11) BentwoodParquet Floor, Liechtenstein Palace, Vienna, 1343-49 (Frame12) BentwoodChair, Liechtenstein Palace, Vienna, 1843-49 (Frame13) Cafe Daum Bent VeneerChair, 1850. Owned by Mrs. F. Thonet, Vienna (Frame1.4) BentwoodFurniture Production (Frame15) IJ.L.Beech trunksare cut into boards U.R. Woodenpoles are steamedbefore bending L.L. Steamedpoles are strappedinto iron molds L.R. Weavingof cane seatsand backs "Vienna"Bentwood Side Chair,1876 model - 1953 model. Collection,The Museumof ModernArt (Frame16) BentwoodRocking Chair, i860. Owned by Miss RobbieM. Griggs, Birmingham,Alabama (Frame17) Picturesillustrating the popularityand wide-spreadacceptance of the bentwoodchair (Frame18) BentwoodArm Chair,c. 1890.Owned by ThonetIndustries, Inc. (Frame19) ThonetBentwood Furniture exhibited ath the CrystalPalace Exhibition,London, 1851 (Frame20) SinglePiece BentwoodChair, c. 1873 (Frame21 3 ProductionPhases of ExperimentalOak Chair:left to right (Frame22 a. Flat board,band sawed b. First bendingoperation forming the back c. Secondbending operation forming the seat d. Finishedchair Art NouveapEentwood Interior, Exposition For DecorativeArts, Turin,1902 (Frame23 BentwoodArm Chair,1870. Collection, The Museumof ModernArt (Frame2k TUBUtARSTEEL Title (Frame25 Sectionof MarcelBreuer's TubularSteel Chair illustratinga new applicationof an industrialmaterial (Frame26 MarcelBreuer; Dining Room, PiscatorApartment, Berlin, 1927 (Frame27 LudwigMies van der Rohe: Living-DiningArea, TugendhatHouse, Brno, Czechoslovakia,1930 (Frame28 Le Corbusierand PierreJeanneret: Living Room, ChurchHouse, Ville d'Avray,1928-29 (Frame29 FirstTubular Metal Chair.Marcel Breuer, 1925- Collection, The Museumof ModernArt (Frame30 ResilientTubular Steel Cantilever Chair. Ludwig Mies van ( ' der Rohe, 1926.Collection, The Museumof ModernArt (Frame3-1 TubularSteel CantileverChair. Marcel Breuer, 1928. Collection,The Museumof ModernArt (Frame32 AdjustableRecliner. Le Corbusier,Pierre Jeanneret and CharlottePerriand, 1927 Collection,The Museumof ModernArt (Frame33 AdjustableRecliner (View showing recliner in anotherposition)(Frame 3^ RevolvingLeather Chair. Le Corbusier,Pierre Jeanneret and CharlottePerriand, 1927 Ownedby ThonetIndustries, Inc. (Frame35 MOLPFDPLYWOOD Title (Frame 36 MoldedPlywood shapes demonstrate the inherentflexibility of a traditionallyrigid material (Frame37 AdjustableLounge Chair. Ilmari Tapiovaara, 1929 Ownedby ThonetIndustries, Inc. (Frame38 MoldedPlywood Arm Chair.Joe Adkinson,1952. Owned by Thonet Industries,Inc. (Frame39 1 THONETFJRNITURE Frames1-8: Introduction and InstallationViews of the Exhibition The storyof Thonetfurniture (presented here on the occasionof the firm's 100thanniversary in the UnitedStates) reads like a chapterin the history of industrialization.In the earlypart of the 19thcentury, Michael Thonet, a smallcabinet-maker and joiner,well trained in his craft,experimented in his Rhenishworkshop with new methods to producea chairwhich would be light er, moredurable and at the sametime cheaper to makethan the handmadeproducts of his trade. In 1830,at the age of 23, he beganmaking chair parts and soon completechairs of bundlesof thickveneer strips, which were saturated with glueand exposedto heatin woodenmolds. Thisoriginal method, which was laterreplaced by an improvedprocess of bendingsolid wood, preceded Alvar Aalto'sbent plywood furniture of the 1930sby one hundredyears. In 1842Thonet moved to Austria.Keenly aware of the originalityand possibil itiesof his invention,he pursuedhis idea,in partnershipwith his fivesons, througha lifetimeof unceasinglabor and planning.When he diedin 1871at the age of 75> the one-timesmall cabinet-maker left behind an industrialem pireof factoriesand sawmills, vast holdings of forestsand a networkof companyshowrooms in 25 capitalcities. His inventionled to an entirenew industry.After the expirationof his originalpatents in 1869,other companies beganproducing the samefurniture. Together, in the firstdecade of the 20th century,the industryemployed more than 35,000 people. In manyrespects the Thonet story reads like the Fordstory in the automobile industry.Part of its successlies in industrializationthrough division of labor,the professionalcraftsman being replaced by untrainedhands working in an assemblyline (see Frame no, 15),through control of raw materialsessential to industry-factorieswere placed near beechwood forests, for whichexploitation rightshad beensecured-and through a world-widesales organization. The products-anelaborate line of furniture, particularlychairs-were shipped aroundthe globe in millionsof piecesand installedin everyplace where people sat down for pleasureor work. Dismantledfor easy shippingand equippedwith screwsfor quickassembly, this furnitureled straightto the serialproduction of the 20th century. It not only acceptedbut turnedto positiveadvantage the limitationsof machineproduction, which for good resultsasks for anonymous, simpleshapes devoid of the craftsman'srich and intricatedetail. There is eleganceand refinementin many of the piecesand an inventivenessin the use of materialand productionmethods which have not been surpassed. The greatFrench architect Le Corbusierfurnished his Pavilionde 1'Esprit Nouveauat the 1925 Expositiondes Arts Decoratifsin Pariswith standardized Thonet chairswhich were designedaround 1870 (Frameno. 2^). Le Corbusier explainedhis choicewhen he said "We have introducedthe humbleThonet chair of steamedwood, certainlythe most commonas well as the least costlyof chairs. And we believethat this chair,whose millionsof representativesare used on the Continentand in the two Americas,possesses nobility." Siegfried Giedionin his book "MechanizationTakes Command"terms them "formpurified by serialproduction." It was also in 1925 that a new idea revolutionizedfurniture design: The inven tion of the tubularsteel chair,for which ThonetBrothers soon obtainedmajor productionrights. The storygoes that MarcelBreuer, then a masterat the Bauhausin Dessau,envisioned the use of chromium-platedtubular steel for metal furniturewhile he was ridinga bicycle. It occurredto him that the same bent steelwhich formedhis handlebars couldbe fashionedinto continuous loops to form the supportingframes of chairsand tables. In 1925 he designed and built the first chair entirelyof chrome-platedtubular steel (Frameno.50). Anotherrevolutionary step in the developmentof modernfurniture was the tubular steel cantileverchair. One of the firstmodels, a Breuerdesign of 1928, 3 eventuallybecame the prototypefor thousandsof modificationsthroughout the world. (Frameno. 32). Between1925 and 1929> the greatestarchitects of the modernmovement, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier,Marcel Breuer and others,de velopedtubular steel furniture which we considertoday, together with their architecture,as the classicexamples of new spatialrelationships for a new in dustrialand scientificsociety. ThonetBrothers, who were by then an inter nationalorganization with factoriesin Germanyand Franceas well as the former Austrianterritories, produced all of thesedesigns and becamethe commercial exponentsof a new conceptof beauty. Recent additionsto the furnitureproduced by the AmericanThonet Industries re flect the firm'spioneer spirit. Knock-downplywood and leatherchairs by IlmariTapiovaara and moldedplywood chairs by Joe Adkinson(Frames no. 58 and 39) indicatethe endlesspossibilities open to the inventivemind in designs which are as differentfrom the rigidprecision of the metal piecesof the 1920s as they are from the sinuousinterlacings of the earlierbentwood chairs. FIRST BENT VENEERCHAIR, I856-I8I+O. Frames9-11 MichaelThonet, born in 1796 in the smalltown of Boppardon the Rhine, <earned the carpenter'strade and in 1819, at the age of 25, openedhis own businessas joinerand cabinetmaker. It was the periodof Germanadaptation of French Empire,called Biedermeier in Germany,and Thonet's furniturein the Biedermeier