Marcel Lajos Breuer 1902 - 1981

Born in Pécs, Hungary in 1902. As with so many of the great modernist furniture designers Breuer was also an architect, but unlike so many of them he actually started out as a furniture designer. One of the greatest architects and furniture designers of the 20th century, his name is today synonymous with the fundamental principles of the Bauhaus.

The Bauhaus was a German school of design where modern principles, technologies and the application of new materials were developed and applied in both the industrial and fine arts. Inspired by these new ideas, Breuer developed his own, International Style of work - one of his best kwown designs from this period is the Wassily Chair.

In 1925 he was inspired by the shape and form of bicycle handlebars prompting him to design the 1926 steel club armchair - later renamed the Wassily Chair No B3, (named for fellow Bauhaus teacher, Wassily Kandinsky). The frame of the chair was made from lengths of nickled tubular steel, bent, chrome plated and polished. He expected this piece to bring him critisim, but - in his own words: I thought that this out of all my work would earn me the most criticism, but the opposite of what I expected came true.