Nathan Lerner New Bauhaus Chair, 1940s

Upholstered plywood chair designed by Nathan Lerner (1913-1997) while a student at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. Lerner’s chair was a project from the Product Design Workshop at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. It was designed to be made out of a single sheet of plywood. The concept is related to New Bauhaus director László Moholy-Nagy’s belief that one-piece objects would eventually eliminate the assembly line and inefficiencies of tired workers.

In the 1940s Popular Home magazine sold full-scale plans for the chairs that included step by step instructions and materials needed to produce the chair. An original copy of those plans are included with the chair.

H 29.5 in. x W 16.5 in. x D 19 in.

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Nathan Lerner, a Chicago native whose parents were Ukrainian emigrants, was an influential graphic designer, photographer and educator. At a young age Lerner had an interest in becoming a painter. In 1937, sculpture Archipenko, recommended he attend the New Bauhaus school in Chicago. At the time, Archipenko was teaching New Bauhaus under Moholy-Nagy. Soon, Lerner began assisting Gyorgy Kepes.

Charles Eames visited the New Bauhaus a number of times in the 1930s and was no doubt influenced by the work students such as Lerner were doing with plywood. In 1942, Lerner worked with Charles Niedringhaus developing a machine for forming plywood into furniture. Most of the furniture created at the School of Design used this machine.

After working for the military, Lerner returned to the school, now called the Institute of Design, and was named dean of faculty and students and head of the product design workshop. He became director of the entire school by Walter Gropius upon Moholy-Nagy’s death in 1946.

He left the school in 1949 and opened a design office and concentrated on the design of everyday objects. In 1955, he designed the ubiquitous bear-shaped honey bottle. He also continued making and exhibiting photography.