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/ Alexander von Vegesack

The collections cover nearly all areas of furniture for everyday use: seating for the home, children’s furniture, interior concepts for cooperative living, office furnishings and, finally, modern forms of nomadic living. For the period starting in the 1960s, there are also numerous examples of furniture that reflect contemporary art and then, from the 1980s onwards, an increasing number of objects produced as one-off pieces or in limited editions from designers who emphasize the concept of individual authorship in their work. By no means exclusively limited to industrial furniture, the collections also include quite a few models that were produced individually or in small series. They too have their rightful place at Vitra Design Museum in recognition of their formal, structural, technological or functional contributions to the development of industrial furniture design.

In addition to a minor section on consumer electronics – principally consisting of a collection of Braun electronic devices – a group of industrially produced lighting is being developed under the direction of Raymond Fehlbaum that allows the Museum’s exhibitions to more aptly portray the design history of the home environment. The selection criteria here correspond to those in the area of furniture. A key difference lies in the time frame for the different areas, as the period of industrially manufactured electric lighting does not begin until the later years of the nineteenth century with the inventions of Thomas Alva Edison. The collection starts with Peter Behrens followed by the Bauhaus designers Christian Dell, Marianne Brandt and Wilhelm Wagenfeld. Scandinavian designers like Poul Henningsen and Verner Panton, the latter of whom made significant contributions in this area, are likewise represented. There are also numerous Italian works, such as those by Gino Sarfatti or Angelo Lelli, along with creations by Serge Mouille. Notable among the important figures from more recent years is Ingo Maurer with his poetic light sculptures.

As a source of information, the library and archives are as important to the work of the Museum as the furniture collection itself. Extensive holdings of the 250 most important journals and magazines and some 9500 book titles on furniture design, architecture and related disciplines, as well as archives with company catalogues, photos, films, drawings and written documents form the basis for our scholarly research and writings.

A collection that extends up to the present will always be incomplete. The more recent an object, the more difficult it is to assess its historic significance. With the veritable flood of designs over the last twenty years – including many one-off pieces and limited editions that by their very nature have attained tremendous publicity – collectors must exercise particular caution when considering acquisitions of current products. It is precisely in this sensitive area, however, that the expertise and visual judgment of Rolf Fehlbaum has always played an essential role. In regard to the collections’ gaps in the truly historic decades of design history, these will become smaller over time, even if some can no longer be entirely eliminated – either because the missing objects are extremely rare and the few that do exist are firmly rooted in other collections, or because they simply no longer exist at all.

The picture the Vitra Design Museum collections sketch of the history of modern furniture design may be incomplete, but precisely because of its deliberately restricted focus, it is considerably more distinct and coherent than many of the leading collections of publicly operated institutions.

Alexander von Vegesack has been founding director of the Vitra Design Museum since 1989. Since taking up this position, von Vegesack has established a highly diverse and international programme of design and architecture exhibitions, issued numerous publications, initiated an annual international museum conference and launched an internationally renowned seminar series.