Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
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6.
7.
8.
Introduction
Concept
Curator
Consultants
Objects / Installation
Catalogue
Accompanying sales products
Contacts
1. Introduction
2. Concept
The Vitra Design Museum possesses one of the most extensive and
comprehensive collections of Marcel Breuers furniture designs worldwide. In addition, the Museum owns the archive of Anton Lorenz, a
long-time business partner of Breuer who assembled an outstanding
collection of original documents on the history of tubular steel furniture
that includes important source material on the evolution of Breuers
furniture designs. Therefore, the Vitra collection and archive offer a
solid foundation for a comprehensive retrospective of the work of this
innovative master. Several American institutions (Archives of American
Art in Washington, Syracuse University Library in Syracuse, N.Y., MoMA
and the Whitney Museum in New York City) and previous co-workers
of Breuer have been consulted for the research and presentation of his
work in the USA.
With its retrospective on the work of Marcel Breuer, the Vitra Design
Museum will focus on his seminal contribution to the development of
furniture and interior design in the twentieth century. At the same time,
the exhibition provides an opportunity to reintroduce Breuers longneglected architectural oeuvre to the public and to reassess its place
in modern architecture.
A pivotal contribution of this Bauhaus master to the history of design
and one that can be designated without exaggeration as revolutionary
was the invention of tubular steel furniture. A presentation of the
incremental development and perfection of Breuers tubular steel
furniture within the mere time of five years is, therefore, one of the main
aims of the exhibition. Of hardly less import, from todays perspective,
are Breuers designs for aluminum and wood laminates from the thirties,
which also represent ground-breaking innovations. They will receive
deserved attention, as well as the legendary interiors by Breuer during
his early days at the Bauhaus. Examples that had a significant influence
upon twentieth century domestic culture include the interior of the
master house for Walter Gropius in Dessau and the home of the famous
theatre director Erwin Piscator in Berlin. Within the context of furniture
design, the exhibition will explore the periodically intensive and
consequential relationship between Breuer and Alvar Aalto. Breuers
design work will be documented with a large number of original furniture
pieces, as well as drawings and photographs.
Armchair, 1922
Shelve, 1930
Wohnbedarf store,
Zurich 1932/33
Church at Saint Johns Abbey and University Complex in Collegeville (Minnesota), 1954-68
3. Curator + 4. Consultants
Curator
Mathias Remmele works as a publicist, curator and docent.
He writes for scholarly journals and national daily newspapers
(Neue Zrcher Zeitung, Bauwelt, Archithese, Design Report, Form)
as an architecture and design critic. Remmele organised the retrospective exhibition on Verner Panton in 1999/2000 for the Vitra
Design Museum and edited the accompanying catalogue entitled
Verner Panton The Complete Oeuvre. Since 2000, he is a
lecturer at the University of Art and Design in Basle, Switzerland.
Consultans
Barry Bergdoll teaches art history at Columbia University in New
York. In 2001, he co-curated the MoMA (NYC) exhibition on Mies van
der Rohe. He is presently working on a book about the architecture
of Marcel Breuer.
Joachim Driller is an art historian who teaches in the Department of
Architecture at the University of Wuppertal. He has published a highly
regarded monograph on Marcel Breuers single-family houses.
Ulrich Fiedler, is a gallery owner in cologne and expert in Bauhaus
furniture and objects.
Isabelle Hyman teaches art and architectural history at New York
University. She published the first comprehensive monograph on the
Marcel Breuers architectural oeuvre in 2001.
Otakar Mc
el is an art historian and teaches at the Technical
University in Delft. With numerous publications he has established
a reputation as an expert on tubular steel furniture.
Alexander von Vegesack, collector and founding Director of the Vitra
Design Museum in Weil am Rhein and Berlin. Author of Deutsche
Stahlrohrmbel, Das Thonet Buch and various publications on
tubular steel furniture.
Catalogue
Marcel Breuer - Design and Architecture
Edited by Alexander von Vegesack and Mathias Remmele
Approx. 300 pages with numerous illustrations
In addition to essays by Barry Bergdoll, Joachim Driller, Isabelle
Hyman, Otakar Mc
el, Mathias Remmele and others, the catalogue
includes texts by Marcel Breuer and personal accounts by his
contemporaries. Also projected is a catalogue raisonn of Marcel
Breuers furniture designs.
8. Contacts