Marcel Breuer
1902–1981

Introduction

Marcel Lajos Breuer ( BROY-ər; 21 May 1902 – 1 July 1981) was a Hungarian-German modernist architect and furniture designer. He moved to the United States in 1937 and became a naturalized American citizen in 1944.

At the Bauhaus he designed the Wassily Chair and the Cesca Chair, which The New York Times have called some of the most important chairs of the 20th century. Breuer extended the sculpture vocabulary he had developed in the carpentry shop at the Bauhaus into a personal architecture that made him one of the world's most popular architects at the peak of 20th-century design. His work includes art museums, libraries, college buildings, office buildings, and residences. Many are in a Brutalist architecture style, including the former IBM Research and Development facility which was the birthplace of the first personal computer. He is regarded as one of the great innovators of modern furniture design and one of the most-influential exponents of the International Style.

Wikidata identifier

Q57588

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Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Accessed November 13, 2024.

Introduction

In the 1920s, Breuer led the carpentry workshop at the Bauhaus, designing innovative modern furniture which rejected formalism and ornamentation, including the cantilevered chair and his famous 'Wassily' chair. From 1928 to 1931 he worked on architectural projects for Walter Gropius. He emigrated to the United States in 1937 and became a professor at Harvard University. While at Harvard, he and Gropius formed a partnership designing buildings that were influenced by New England vernacular architecture. From 1963 to 1966, Breuer designed the Whitney Museum of American Art. American architect and designer, born in Hungary, studied in Germany, in U.S. since 1937.

Country of birth

Hungary

Roles

Artist, architect, designer, furniture designer, interior designer, lecturer, manufacturer, painter, photographer

ULAN identifier

500118800

Names

Marcel Breuer, Marcel L. Breuer, Marcel Lajos Breuer

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Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed November 13, 2024.



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