NELSON BRIDGE’S LIST OF TOP TEN MODERN CHAIRS - #04 - The Wassily Chair

The Wassily Chair, #4 in our list of Most Favorite Modern Chairs

The Wassily chair, as it is known today, was originally named the B3 chair when it was first designed by Marcel Breuer at the Bauhaus in 1925. The chair soon became a favorite of fellow Bauhaus professor, Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky liked it so much, in fact, that Breuer made him a duplicate for his own, and when it was later put into production it took on Kandinsky’s name through this association.

Breuer’s Wassily along with his Cesca chair have become some of the best-known furniture to come out of the Bauhaus. They were both developed using techniques gleaned from the production of bicycles. While the Wassily chair is perhaps less known than his Cesca chair to the general public. The Cesca has become a favorite of kitchenette stores and bargain producers and has been cheapened both in price and quality by the multitude of knock offs available. The Wassily, on the other hand is far more innovative and complex, and a bit more difficult to produce than the Cesca and therefore retains, for the most part, its quality and stature in the design world. Its form follows the shape of a traditional club chair, where all the parts have been distilled down to their most basic structural elements. It becomes, in essence, the outline of a club chair in its purest form. It is just this essential purity that makes Breuer’s Wassily chair one of our ten most favorite modern chairs.

Learn More About Marcel Breuer and The Wassily Chair:

Wassily Chair @ Wikipedia

Marcel Breuer @ Design Language Etc.

Wassily Chair @ Knoll.com

Marcel Breuer @ bauhaus2yourhouse.com