The design of brutalist furniture encompasses that which is crafted, hewn and worked by hand — an aesthetic rebuke (or, at least, a counterpoint) to furniture that is created using 21st-century materials and technology. Lately, the word “brutalist” has been adopted by the realms of furniture design and the decorative arts to refer to chairs, cabinets, tables and accessory pieces such as mirror frames and lighting that are made of rougher, deeply textured metals and other materials that are the visual and palpable antithesis of the sleek, smooth and suave.
ORIGINS OF BRUTALIST FURNITURE DESIGN
CHARACTERISTICS OF BRUTALIST FURNITURE DESIGN
BRUTALIST FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
VINTAGE BRUTALIST FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
The term brutalism — which derives from the French word brut, meaning “raw” — was coined by architecture critic Reyner Banham to describe an architectural style that emerged in the 1950s featuring monumental buildings, usually made of unornamented concrete, whose design was meant to project an air of strength and solidity.
Le Corbusier essentially created the brutalist style; its best-known iterations in the United States are the Whitney Museum of American Art, which was designed by Marcel Breuer, and Paul Rudolph's Yale Art and Architecture Building. The severe style might have been the most criticized architectural movement of the 20th century, even if it was an honest attempt to celebrate the beauty of raw material. But while the brutalist government buildings in Washington, D.C., seemingly bask in their un-beauty, brutalist interior design and decor is much more lyrical, at times taking on a whimsical, romantic quality that its exterior counterparts lack.
Paul Evans is Exhibit A for brutalist furniture design. His Sculpture Front cabinets laced with high-relief patinated steel mounts have become collector's items nonpareil, while the chairs, coffee table and dining table in his later Cityscape series and Sculpted Bronze series for Directional Furniture are perhaps the most expressive, attention-grabbing pieces in American modern design. Other exemplary brutalist designers are Silas Seandel, the idiosyncratic New York furniture designer and sculptor whose works in metal — in particular his tables — have a kind of brawny lyricism, and Curtis Jere, a nom-de-trade for the California team of Curtis Freiler and Jerry Fels, the bold makers of expressive scorched and sheared copper and brass mirror frames and wall-mounted sculptures.
Brutalist furniture and sculptures remain popular with interior designers and can lend unique, eccentric, human notes to an art and design collection in any home.
Find authentic vintage brutalist chairs, coffee tables, decorative objects and other furniture on 1stDibs.
Hand-built Raku-Fired Tripod Vessel, Yellow Dalmatian Crackle Glaze
Located in Brooklyn, NY
The Tripod is built from stoneware slabs and coils in our Brooklyn studio and fired in the traditional Japanese Raku tradition in New Jersey. A primary yellow crackle glaze is applie...
Stoneware
$1,644Sale Price / set|20% Off
Brutalist Tree Trunk Ceramic Pitcher and Set of Six Drinking Cups, circa 1950
Located in Barcelona, ES
Set of Brutalist Tree Trunk Ceramic Jug and Six Cups, France, 1950s. Rare multicolor handpainted water / sangria / juice drinking set of six cups and large jug with tree trunk desig...
Ceramic, Majolica, Pottery
Large Sculptural Vase #4 by Dena Zemsky
By Dena Zemsky
Located in New York, NY
Large sculptural vase #4 by Dena Zemsky. Hand-built, glazed stoneware vase form. Signed and dated on underside.
Ceramic, Stoneware
Hand-built Raku-Fired Tripod Vessel #4, Dalmatian Crackle Glaze
Located in Brooklyn, NY
The Tripod is built from stoneware slabs and coils in our Brooklyn studio and fired in the traditional Japanese Raku tradition in New Jersey. A clear crackle glaze is applied with a ...
Stoneware
Set of 3 Blanc de Chine Awa Odori Figurines
Located in Hanover, MA
Set of three white porcelain Awa Odori festival dancers wearing kimono and amigasa bamboo hat. Often mistaken for geishas. Dancing figures created by Keiten Takahashi (Japanese, 192...
Porcelain
Stoneware Sculptural Object by Ole Bjørn Krüger Own Studio, Denmark, 1970s
Located in Odense, DK
Unique abstract sculptural object by Danish artist Ole Bjørn Krüger (1922-2007) made at his own studio in the 1970s. The object is made of chamotte stonew...
Stoneware
$2,620Sale Price|20% Off
1970 Brutalist Studio Pottery Floor Vase by Inge
Located in New Windsor, NY
Handmade slab built monumental Brutalist pottery vase. Meticulously decorated and glazed with organic and geometric patterns and shapes. Applied neck. Signed and dated, Inge, 70 a th...
Stoneware
$1,480Sale Price|20% Off
Monumental Brutalist Floor Vase, Signed Inge
Located in New Windsor, NY
Monumental 1960s Brutalist slab built floor vase. This is another amazing piece of architectural pottery offered here signed by Inge. Incised decor. Good condition with no visible ha...
Clay, Stoneware
$1,800Sale Price|20% Off
Large Slab Built Volcanic Glaze Architectural Pottery Vase, 1959
Located in New Windsor, NY
Large slab built architectural pottery vase. Purchased from a White Plains, NY estate that had multiple pieces by this particular artist. Little biographica...
Ceramic, Earthenware, Pottery
Raku-Fired Decorative Box-Bowl, Crackle Glaze
Located in Brooklyn, NY
The Box is built from seven stoneware slabs in our Brooklyn studio and fired in the traditional Japanese Raku tradition in New Jersey. The crackles in the clear glaze are stained bla...
Stoneware
Heavy Earthenware Vide Poche with Enmeled Fused Glass Decor, France 1960's
Located in New York, NY
Heavy earthenware vessel with a fused red glass decor.
Earthenware, Art Glass
Monumental Brutalist Ashtray by Marcello Fantoni for Raymor, 1950s
Located in View Park, CA
A green glow: monumental vintage Italian brutalist hand-worked metal ashtray by Marcello Fantoni for Raymor, made in Italy circa 1950. Patinated copper in tones of chartreuse, teal, and pewter. Born in Florence in 1915, Marcello Fantoni wed ancient Italian pottery technique with decidedly Modernist elements, garnering tremendous acclaim both at home and abroad - his work has been collected by important museums worldwide. When Fantoni died in Florence in 2011 at the age of 95, his obituary in the Italian newspaper La Nazione hailed him “the master of beauty.” This stunning piece certainly justifies the moniker. With the signature etched on verso, it is without doubt an heirloom rarity for the savvy collector...
Copper
1970s C.A.S. Vietri Fat Lava Ceramic Mug and Pitcher Set, 12 Pieces
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A 12 piece Italian ceramic mug and pitcher set by C.A.S. Vietri, produced in Vietri sul Mare during the 1970s. The set includes twelve mugs and one matching pitcher, all finished in ...
Ceramic
Fat Lava Brutalist Style Hungarian Colored Ceramic Glazed Vase
Located in Prato, Tuscany
We kindly suggest you read the whole description, because with it we try to give you detailed technical and historical information to guarantee the authenticity of our objects. Pecul...
Ceramic
Fat Lava Style German Colored Ceramic Glazed Vase
Located in Prato, Tuscany
We kindly suggest you read the whole description, because with it we try to give you detailed technical and historical information to guarantee the authenticity of our objects. Particular and original German ceramic vase colored with a beautiful shade of red and a dark and vivid black; it has a simple shape but at the same time innovative and modernist; the beautiful and bright colors are balanced and proportioned respecting a minimalist design; the glazing of the vase was obtained by first laying down one color, proceeding to fix it by firing it in the kiln, then the same procedure was carried out for the other color; on the bottom is the mark "W. Germany"; it was produced between 1968 and 1971 in a craft workshop in the city of Dresden (then in East Germany), an important center for the production of porcelain and ceramics. "Fat lava" is the name given to a certain style of East German art...
Ceramic
Caroline Blackburn Brutalist Lava-Glaze Ceramic Vessel, White, 2010s
Located in Sherman Oaks, CA
DESIGNER - Caroline Blackburn PERIOD - 2010s ORIGIN - United States MATERIALS - Ceramic, HandCrafted STYLE - Brutalist DIMENSIONS - 18 H x 13 W x 13 D in (45.72 x 33.02 x 33.02 ...
Ceramic, Clay
Caroline Blackburn Brutalist Vessel, White and Blue with Kintsugi, 2010s
Located in Sherman Oaks, CA
DESIGNER - Caroline Blackburn PERIOD - 2010s ORIGIN - United States MATERIALS - Ceramic, HandCrafted STYLE - Brutalist DIMENSIONS - 17H x 15 W x 15 D in (43.18 x 38.01 x 38.01 ...
Gold
Large Sculptural Vase #5 by Dena Zemsky
By Dena Zemsky
Located in New York, NY
Large sculptural vase #5 by Dena Zemsky. Hand-built, glazed stoneware vase form. Signed and dated on underside.
Ceramic, Stoneware
$2,200 / item
Sculptural Vessels in Gray by Sonja Duo-Meyer
By Sonja Duó-Meyer
Located in New York, NY
Sculptural vessels in an ovoid form with walled aperture. Hand-built of gray chamotte Limoges porcelain by Swiss ceramic artist Sonja Duo-Meyer (b. 1953) and executed circa 1995. The...
Porcelain
Sculpture in earthenware
Located in SAINT-OUEN-SUR-SEINE, FR
Abstract sculpture in polychrome enameled earthenware, La Borne, signature to be identified, France circa 1970’s
Enamel
$280Sale Price|20% Off
H 12 in Dm 7 in
Ceramic Pitcher, Red, White and Black, Midcentury, 1950, Italy, Ceramic Vessel
Located in New York, NY
Ceramic, midcentury pitcher from Italy, circa 1950. The color is red, white and black. Good condition.
Ceramic
Important Stoneware Sculpture by Tim Orr, circa 1970-1980
By Tim Orr
Located in Neuilly-en- sancerre, FR
An important stoneware sculpture by Tim Orr. Handwritten signature at the base. Circa 1970-1980. One pair is avaible.
Ceramic
Studio Pottery Incised Stoneware Box Signed "Polk 70"
Located in Brooklyn, NY
1970 Polk stoneware "box" with a brown matte glaze that bears a wood-like appearance. Incised floral detail present on all sides. "Polk '70" signature present to the underside.
Ceramic
$1,028
H 9.06 in W 5.91 in D 3.94 in
Ceramic Pitcher by Jacques Innocenti, to Vallauris, circa 1960-1970
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
A ceramic pitcher by Jacques Innocenti to Vallauris. Perfect original conditions. Handwritten signature under the base "Innocenti Vallauris", circa 1960.
Ceramic
D. Peterson Ceramic Pitcher and Cups Set Dated 1956
By D. Peterson
Located in Chicago, IL
This handmade ceramic pitcher and cups set has classically simple forms. The glaze treatment is wonderfully irregular, embracing the spontaneity of the process. The darker glaze on t...
Ceramic
$2,467
H 17.8 in W 20.3 in D 20.3 in
Ceramic Vase Bleached Amarillo Adam Knoche Yellow Contemporary Glazed Vessel
By Adam Knoche
Located in Barcelona, ES
Ceramic vase model “Bleached Amarillo” From the “Bleached” series Manufactured by Adam Knoche USA, 2022 Hand built, ram-pressed pulverized porcelain, glaze, cone six oxidation ...
Ceramic, Clay, Porcelain
Important Stoneware Sculpture by Tim Orr, circa 1970-1980
By Tim Orr
Located in Neuilly-en- sancerre, FR
An important stoneware sculpture by Tim Orr. Handwritten signature at the base " Tim Orr ". Circa 1970- 1980. One pair is available.
Ceramic
$217 / item
H 0.71 in W 3.15 in D 10.24 in
Japanese Modern LAAB 2 Incenso Incense Holders Raku Ceramics White Crackle
By LAAB Milano
Located in monza, Monza and Brianza
Incenso set An extraordinary addition to a contemporary decor for a stunning visual allure, this set of two incense holders features a raw, porous shape deftly handcrafted following the Japanese technique of naked Raku ceramic firing...
Ceramic
Pair of 19th Century Limoges Monvoisin Porcelain Figurines
Located in Dallas, TX
Presenting a stunning pair of mid to late 19th century French Limoges Bisque porcelain figurines from circa 1870. One is of a lady in period dress/attire cradling a Dove. All hand-painted and decorated to the finest quality. The base is marked with the makers initials “C.H.”. She is made of fine bisque porcelain in the Old Paris porcelain style. The other is of a gentleman set...
Porcelain, Paint
$7,767
H 22.45 in W 6.7 in D 6.89 in
Large Goldscheider Art Déco Figurine 'Helena', Allegory of Beauty, circa 1925
By Ernst Seger, Goldscheider Manufactory of Vienna
Located in Vienna, AT
Very large and rare Goldscheider Vienna ceramic figurine: Art Déco execution of an Art Nouveau design around 1909: young woman as the personification of beauty, with hair tied at th...
Ceramic
Large Blanc de Chine Berlin Porcelain Vase
Located in New York, NY
This tall, slender, blanc de chine porcelain vase was made around 1910 in Berlin by KPM, and was probably designed by Alexander Kips. Blending elements of the Art Nouveau and Rococo ...
Porcelain
$6,500
H 14.5 in Dm 7.5 in
"Nude Hunters with Deer, " Exceptional Art Deco Sculptural Vase by Jean Mayodon
Located in Philadelphia, PA
A highly unusual vase by Jean Mayodon, one of France's leading artists in the Art Deco era, this piece depicts two scenes of nude male hunters with several deer. One of the hunters i...
Clay
Ceramic Hand Thrown Vessel
Located in Palm Springs, CA
Monumental ceramic bulbous vase with greens and yellows throughout. Vessel measures 13" diameter and 26" high.
Ceramic
Large Obvara Vase by Doa Ceramics
Located in Geneve, CH
Large Obvara vase by Doa Ceramics Dimensions: 8" (in) Materials: Ceramic. Technique: Hand-crafted. Freeform. Glazed. Also available in size 6".
Ceramic
$1,479Sale Price|30% Off
H 9.85 in Dm 5.52 in
Midcentury Modern Sculptural Vase Rörstrand by Gunnar Nylund, Sweden, 1950s
Located in Hillringsberg, SE
Wonderfully crafted stoneware vase by Gunnar Nylund for Rörstrand 1950s with exceptional yellow green, brown hare fur glaze. Good vintage condition with. Dimensions: Height 25 cm ...
Stoneware
Sold
H 20 in W 18.5 in D 18.5 in
Carolinen Blackburn Brutalist Lava-Glaze Ceramic Vessel, Black, 2010s
Located in Sherman Oaks, CA
DESIGNER - Caroline Blackburn PERIOD - 2010s ORIGIN - United States MATERIALS - Ceramic, HandCrafted STYLE - Brutalist DIMENSIONS - 18.5 H x 20 W x 20 D in (46.99 x 50.8 x 50.8...
Ceramic, Clay
Sold
H 16.74 in W 20.48 in D 50.01 in
Massive brutalist ceramic vase by Marius Giuge, Vallauris France 1950s
By Marius Giuge
Located in STRASBOURG, FR
Impressive vase by Marius Bessone in Vallauris circa 1950, featuring thick glazing, resulting in numerous shrink marks and drips. In very good condition, signed underneath.
Ceramic
Sold
H 11.82 in W 9.06 in D 5.91 in
1960 Large Ceramic Bird Figurine by Gunnar Nylund for Rörstrand, Sweden
Located in Silvolde, Gelderland
This vibrant ceramic sculpture depicts a stylized blue parrot with exaggerated tail feathers and finely detailed plumage. Designed by renowned Swedish designer Gunnar Nylund for Rörs...
Ceramic
English ceramicist Paul Philp Vase, 2014
By Paul Philp
Located in Uccle, BE
Paul Philp ( born. 1941 ) Previously lecturer at Londons Central School of Art and at Corsham, Philp is based in the South West of England and now devotes himself to the creation of...
Stoneware
Sold
H 7.88 in W 3.55 in D 3.55 in
Brutalist ceramic vase in deep green and brown colour with copper dripping
Located in Oostende, BE
Ceramic vase in deep green and brown colour with colour dripping. Signed at the bottom.
Copper
Decorative Danish Mid-Century Ceramic Wall Art, Signed CF, 1970
Located in Odense, DK
A fine unique sculptural stoneware wall unit in various brown and beige colors, mounted on a wooden plate. Signed CF 1970. Nice texture and dimensions in this vintage piece. This brutalist object fits in many interior styles. Modern interior, Art Deco interior and Classic home...
Ceramic, Stoneware
Swedish Curt M. Addin Semi Glazed Stoneware Vase, 1970's
Located in Uccle, BE
Stoneware vase designed and produced by Curt Addin in his own studio, Glumslöv, Sweden, c. 1970s. Item signed by maker. Great to group. I have a dozen listed so you can instantly sta...
Stoneware
Swedish Curt M Addin Semi Glazed Stoneware Vase, 1970's
Located in Uccle, BE
Stoneware bowl designed and produced by Curt Addin in his own studio, Glumslöv, Sweden, c. 1970s. Piece signed by maker. Great to group. I have a dozen listed so you can instantly st...
Stoneware
Swedish Cart M. Addin Semi Glazed Stoneware Vase, 1970's
Located in Uccle, BE
Stoneware vase designed and produced by Curt M Addin in his own studio in Glumslöv, Sweden, c. 1970s. Piece signed by maker. Great to group. I have a dozen listed so you can instant...
Stoneware
Swedish Curt M Addin Semi Glazed Stoneware Vase, 1970's
Located in Uccle, BE
Stoneware vase designed and produced by Curt Addin in his own studio, Glumslöv, Sweden, c. 1970s. Piece signed by maker. Great to group. I have a dozen listed so you can instantly s...
Stoneware
Curt M Addin, Semi-Glazed Stoneware Vase, Sweden, 1970s
Located in Uccle, BE
Stoneware vase designed and produced by Curt Addin in his own studio, Glumslöv, Sweden, c. 1970s. Piece signed by maker. Great to group.
Stoneware
Curt M Addin, Brutalist Semi-Glazed Stoneware Vase, Sweden, 1970s
Located in Uccle, BE
Stoneware vase designed and produced by Curt Addin in his own studio, Glumslöv, Sweden, c. 1970s. Piece signed by maker.
Stoneware
Curt M Addin, Semi-Glazed Stoneware Vase, Sweden, 1970s
Located in Uccle, BE
Stoneware vase designed and produced by Curt M Addin in his own studio, Glumslöv, Sweden, c. 1970s. Piece signed by maker. Great to group. I have a dozen ...
Stoneware
Brutalist Unique Vintage Holey Ceramic Studio Art Vase, 1997
Located in View Park, CA
A tall brutalist ceramic vase, 1990s. Style of Sally Bowen Prange. Trypophobes beware: upper half of vase is holes galore. Muted teal and denim ...
Ceramic
Swedish Semi Glazed Stoneware, 1970's
Located in Uccle, BE
Stoneware vase designed and produced by Curt Addin in his own studio, Glumslöv, Sweden, c. 1970s. Piece signed by maker.
Stoneware