Frankenberg, Germany
“When asked to reinterpret a Thonet piece of furniture,” said Jörg Schellmann of Schellmann Furniture, “I opted for the Breuer table with its perfectly balanced asymmetry.”
“I decided for an “update” by replacing its drawer case with three simple commercial plastic boxes, easily convertible for left and right hand use.”
“This equipment places the table in today’s working world. To create a work ensemble, I adapted one of my earlier chair designs to a tubular steel structure characteristic of Thonet and Breuer.”
“The A shape of its legs offers an attractive counterpart to the rounded yet orthogonal aesthetics of the Breuer table and the Bauhaus period.”
The desk is fabricated from tubular steel, with ash wood panels stained black and industrial plastic boxes.
The chair is also tubular steel with 3D plywood stained black.
On the occasion of Thonet’s 200th anniversary, the Munich gallery Schellmann Art staged the exhibition “Thonet Re-Imagined” from November 2019 to January 2020.
Objects, sculptures, graphics and photographs by 19 internationally renowned artists were on view.
In view of the recurring representations of iconic Thonet chairs in works of art from the late 19th century and the modern age, Jörg Schellmann asked several contemporary artists, including Christo, Liam Gillick, Tobias Rehberger, Thomas Ruff, Rosemarie Trockel and Wade Guyton, to come to terms with the design language Thonet designs and its history of impact.
In addition to these works of art, the exhibition also showed current reinterpretations of existing Thonet designs by three designers: Konstantin Grcic, James Irvine and Jörg Schellmann.
Project: Desk and Chair (Hommage à Marcel Breuer)
Designer: Schellmann Furniture
Manufacturer: Thonet GmbH
