Designer

Alexey Brodovitch has never separated content from form. His work as a designer continues the same obsessions that run through his layouts: fluidity, balance, the invisible tension between full and empty. One of the few pieces of his work to have come to public attention is the Floor Chair (model 1211-C), now in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Designed in the 1940s, this low chair embodies a radical, silent modernity. Made entirely of curved plywood, the chair rests directly on the floor, with no visible legs or structure. Two curves fit together with organic precision, forming a single gesture - almost a fold in the material. With no screws or decoration, it seems to have been born in a single stroke, suspended between functional design and minimal sculpture. More than a piece of furniture, the Floor Chair is an idea made tangible: that of humble comfort, close to the ground, anchored in an aesthetic of sobriety. It reminds us that for Brodovitch, design was an art of rhythm - be it typography, movement or material.