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ABOUT THE DESIGNER
Marcel Breuer (1902–1981)
Marcel Breuer was one of the most influential figures of 20th-century design, shaping modernism through both architecture and furniture. Trained at the Bauhaus in Weimar under Walter Gropius, Breuer became celebrated for his bold use of industrial materials and his vision of furniture as both art and engineering.
His most iconic contribution to design history is the Wassily Chair (Model B3), created in 1925. Inspired by the tubular steel of a bicycle frame, Breuer pioneered the use of bent tubular steel in furniture, making the chair incredibly light yet structurally strong. Its stripped-back form, with taut leather or canvas slings stretched across a skeletal steel frame, redefined what a chair could be—more architecture than upholstery.
Though later named after his colleague Wassily Kandinsky, who admired and owned an early version, the Wassily Chair stands as Breuer’s masterpiece: radical in its time, timeless today. It embodies the Bauhaus ethos of uniting craft, technology, and beauty, and remains a benchmark of modern design nearly a century later.
At Alpha Modern, we celebrate Breuer not only as a visionary architect but as the designer who gave us one of the most enduring symbols of modern living—the Wassily Chair.
