Six bent plywood midcentury modern chairs are displayed inside glossy white square cells at the Danish Museum of Art & Design. Three chairs are on the top row, and three more are below. Arne Jacobsen's Series 7 chair is at upper right. None of the chairs is labeled.

When Danish Modern Style Ruled

In the 1940s, during World War II, Danish designers were prominent leaders in the movement to design and make affordable, functional, elegant furniture. Danish designer Kaare Klint (1888–1954) is today considered the father of modern Danish design. He helped establish the Department of Furniture Design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and taught […]

Four squares containing bright and busy textile patterns designed in the 1950s and 1960s by textile designer Lucienne Day. The upper left design has a taupe background with black, white, yellow, and red half moon shapes of different sizes and patterns aligned along straight lines like stylized flowers on stems. At upper right are white outlines of leaves overlaid on squares of varying shades of green. At lower left is a grey background overlaid with roughly rectangular faded coral, faded blue, and white shapes with tiny black characters (stars, squares, leaves) overlaid above the colors in lines. At lower right is a goldenrod covered square with many square and triangular lines and dots overlaid in black.

Midcentury Modern Colors

When someone mentions midcentury modernism, what colors come to mind? Chances are, you think of the olive, gold, teal, and orange tones popular in textiles from the late fifties and early sixties. Or maybe you’ve seen so many recent midcentury reproductions upholstered in beige or grey that you think of the era as a time […]