Conchoidal Chair without Arms (Perspective)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
American, born Germany. 1886–1969
early 1940s
A small pencil-on-paper design study in which Mies van der Rohe works out the low, curving form and supporting legs of an armless “Conchoidal” chair.
The sight is dominated by economical, gestural lines: a softly contoured, shell-like seat sketched with light curves while darker, hatched strokes ground the arching supports, giving the idea of volume and weight with minimal means.
The drawing shows Mies’s method of translating modernist ideals of reduction, proportion, and structural clarity from architecture into furniture, a practice that helped define midcentury modern design.
Medium
Pencil on paper
Dimensions
6 x 8 1/8" (15.2 x 20.6 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Mies van der Rohe Archive, gift of the architect
Accession
1073.1974
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
