About the Item
If you want to be the envy of your friends and fellow designers, here’s how you do it. Rare pair of Vladimir Kagan Swivel Wingback Chairs for Directional with custom ottomans freshly and expertly upholstered in curly latte fabric. Sculptural and classic Kagan design, these chairs are incredibly comfortable. The wingbacks wrap around you like a warm hug and the seats have just the right amount of give to cradle you. A terrific choice for a reading chair, for adding a sexy sculptural high design look to any room or to overlook an incredible view with a cup of joe or glass of your favorite vino. Our Creative Director selected a curly latte color fabric that’s soft and warm, but also very breathable. You’ll want to put your feet up. The custom ottomans are also wonderfully comfortable with just the right amount of give – comfortable and sized well for use as additional seating.
Wingback Chair Dimensions: 40″ H x 30″ D x 32″ W
Ottoman Dimensions: 15″ H x 21″ D x 26″ W.
About the Designer
The pioneers of modern furniture design in America in the mid-20th century all had their moments of flamboyance: Charles and Ray Eames produced the startling, biomorphic La Chaise; George Nelson’s firm created the Marshmallow sofa; Edward Wormley had his decadent Listen to Me chaise. But no designer of the day steadily offered works with more verve and dynamism than Vladimir Kagan. While others, it seems, designed with suburban households in mind, Kagan aimed to suit the tastes of young, sophisticated city-dwellers. With signature designs that feature sleekly curved frames and others that have dramatic out-thrust legs, Kagan made furniture sexy.
Kagan’s father was a Russian master cabinetmaker who took his family first to Germany (where Vladimir was born) and then to New York in 1938. After studying architecture at Columbia University, Kagan opened a design firm at age 22 and immediately made a splash with his long, low and sinuous Serpentine sofa. Furniture lines such as the Tri-symmetric group of glass-topped, three-legged tables and the vivacious Contours chairs soon followed.
Kagan’s choices of form and materials evolved through subsequent decades, embracing lucite, aluminum and burl-wood veneers. By the late 1960s, Kagan was designing austere, asymmetrical cabinets and his Omnibus group of modular sofas and chairs. For all his aesthetic élan, Kagan said that throughout his career, his touchstone was comfort. “A lot of modern furniture was not comfortable. And so comfort is: form follows function. The function was to make it comfortable,” he once commented. “I created what I called vessels for the human body.”
A diverse group of bodies have made themselves at home with Kagan designs. Among the famous names who commissioned and collected his designs are Marilyn Monroe, Gary Cooper, Andy Warhol, David Lynch, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and firms such as Gucci and Giorgio Armani. His work is in numerous museum collections, including those of the Victoria & Albert and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Because of its idiosyncrasy, Kagan’s work did not lend itself to mass-production. Kagan never signed on with any of the major furniture-making corporations, and examples of his designs are relatively rare. As you will see from the offerings on 1stDibs, even decades after their conception, Kagan pieces still command the eye, with their freshness, energy, sensuality and wit.
