If the Cubists Made a Sofa

If the Cubists Made a Sofa

In fact, they did! At least, Czechoslovakian architect Vlastislav Hofman did. An innovative thinker, craftsman, designer, and author, Hofman came to prominence while living and working in the Austro-Hungarian empire circa early 20th. century.

Chaise longue side view

Dubbed the first to design Cubist furniture, Hoffman plied the movement’s theoretical principles to his Cubist chaise longue. Perhaps the best-known of his pieces, the longue is a miraculous eschewal of right angles, as Hofman favored oblique angles instead, as did his Cubist compatriots, Picasso among them.

Cubist chaise longue with olive green upholstery on wood base

The oblique angles not only impart a somewhat unsettling feeling, they also create a sense of rhythm and dynamism, linking the lounge with movement and mechanical forms and “giving rise to a new abstract form that does not resemble anything found in nature.”

chaise longue front view

Read more about Vlastislav Hofman at Modernista.

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