Conchoidal Chair without Arms (Elevation sketch)
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
American, born Germany. 1886–1969
early 1940s
An ink-on-paper sketch by Mies van der Rohe proposing a low, armless “conchoidal” chair—an experiment to turn a sculptural, shell-like curve into a functional seat.
What strikes you first is the restless, looping penwork that builds an S-shaped profile and suggests a hollowed, curling volume as if the chair were being modeled in midair.
The drawing captures Mies’s mid-century effort to blur architecture and furniture—reducing seating to pure, structural form—and anticipates later modernist chairs that treat comfort as sculptural invention.
Medium
Ink 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
1086.1974
Palette
Exhibitions
