Pressemitteilungen

“The contributions, written with great meticulousness, are not only a valuable contribution to design history, which not least sheds light on the corporate and sales structures of tubular steel furniture production, but at the same time they trace the cultural and historical networks of the history of new furniture. One would like to see more publications of this historiographical depth.”

Gerda Breuer, review in: Gesellschaft für Designgeschichte

The tubular steel furniture by Marcel Breuer (1902–1981) is considered an outstanding design object of the 20th century. However, their development from the first prototype to early series production, which is the subject of this book, is largely unknown.

Kálmán Lengyel, Marcel Breuer, Anton Lorenz and the Standard Möbel company

Breuer’s compatriot Kálmán Lengyel (1900–1945) played an important role in this tubular steel revolution. Together they founded the Standard Möbel company in 1927 to organize the serial production and distribution of tubular steel furniture. The development of the company and the work of Breuer, Lengyel and the later managing director Anton Lorenz (1891–1964) are described in detail using previously unknown archive material. The role of Lengyel’s wife, Hajnal Lengyel-Pataki (1898 – after 1966), is also acknowledged. With her commercial graphic designs, she had a decisive influence on the early appearance of various tubular steel furniture companies.

Torsten Bröhan initiated the research project on Kálmán Lengyel and the development of early tubular steel furniture production

As an important furniture designer and architect, Kálmán Lengyel founded his own furniture brand Ka-Le-Möbel, he worked as an interior designer in Paris and built in Berlin, Szeged and Budapest. For the first time, the Bröhan Design Foundation presents a reconstruction of Lengyel’s life and work in the context of European design and architectural history; the book also contains a catalog raisonné of his wooden and tubular steel furniture.
The publication is the result of the research project on Kálmán Lengyel, which Torsten Bröhan initiated in 2016

The Kálmán Lengyel website

Torsten Bröhan, Christoph Janik,  Susanne Engelhard / Bröhan Design Foundation (Hg.): STAHLROHRREVOLUTION! Kálmán Lengyel, Marcel Breuer, Anton Lorenz und das Neue Möbel

Mit Beiträgen von Torsten Bröhan, Susanne Engelhard, Susanne Graner, Éva Horányi, Roland Jaeger und Christoph Janik

Grafische Gestaltung: Alessio Leonardi
360 Seiten, 700 Abbildungen
Hardcover, Deutsch, 48 €

arnoldsche art publishers Stuttgart
ISBN 978-3-89790-683-9

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