HISTORY OF MODERN FURNITURE
Karl Mang
Karl Mang: HISTORY OF MODERN FURNITURE: New York: Abrams 1979. 1st English language edition. A near-fine hardcover Book in a near-fine dust jacket: very nice indeed with only a few light scratches to the photo-illustrated dust jacket. Interior unmarked and very clean. Out-of-print.
9 x 11.5 with 186 pages, and includes 383 high-quality black and white photographs by leading architectural and commercial photographers of the day.
From the book: "The History of Modern Furniture challenges all those who prefer the mediocrity of imitation to the great achievements of creative design. Everyone interested in interior design will want Karl Mang's unabashed advocacy of excellence. Man, a working architect, is president of The Austrian Institute of Design."
"He traces the development of furniture from the early nineteenth century to the present day. In an informal and informative way he reappraises the milestones of modern furniture from Thonet's bentwood chairs to Mies van der Rohe's elegant Barcelona chair to Joe C. Colombo's multi-purpose plastic furnishings."
"International in scope, the book gives ample coverage to American Shaker furniture, William Morris's arts-and-crafts movement, Art Nouveau, De Stijl, the Bauhaus, the International Style, Scandinavian furniture, the modern classics manufactured in America by Knoll and Miller, and recent Italian innovations. Excellent, crisply captioned photographs are conveniently keyed to the text."
"Unsurpassed as an overview of 150 years of furniture design, The History of Modern Furniture is also noteworthy as an examination of the domestic landscape in the light of social history and changing life styles. This period saw many and diverse aesthetic and social theories emerge, and many attempts by architects and designers to create furniture and housing for the needs of a rapidly industrializing world."
"From this abundance of new ideas the author has chosen those that have proved to be more than short-lived fashions. A selected bibliography and a complete index enhance the reference value of this provocative volume."
This book includes a bibliography and many examples of work by the following architects and designers: Arne Jacobsen, Le Corbusier, Poul Kjaerholm, Marcel Breuer, Hans Wegner, Charles Eames, Herman Miller, Mies van der Rohe, Bruno Matthson, Florence Knoll, Isamu Noguchi, Gio Ponti, Eero Saarinen, Frank Lloyd Wright, Finn Juhl, Aalvar Aalto, Harry Bertoia, Richard Neutra, George Nelson, O. Nielsen, Olivier Mourgue, Philip Johnson, Joseph Hoffmann, Walter Gropius, Joseph (Josef) maria Olbrich, Otto Wagner, Gerrit Rietveld, Joseph Frank, Joe Colombo, Henri van der Velde, Michael Thonet, Richard Reimerschmid, and many others.