Marcel Breuer (1902-1981)

Born in Hungary in 1902, Marcel Breuer is recognised as one of the leaders of the modern design movement, a pioneer of organic, functional designs. He studied and taught at the Bauhaus throughout the 1920s, and later became head of their carpentry workshop. Breuer fled to London during the 1930s due to his Jewish ancestry, and it was here that he began some of his first experimentations with bent and formed plywood. Eventually relocating to the United States, where he would remain until his death in 1981, he established his own design successful design firm, which saw the development of many furniture pieces, as well as the famous Whitney Museum and the UNESCO headquarters.