Vladimir Kagan (1927–2016) furniture designer, interior designer
Born in the city of Worms, Germany in 1927, Vladimir Kagan was the son of a Russian-Jewish cabinetmaker. With the rise of the Nazis, in 1937 the family immigrated via steam liner to New York. Kagan attended what was then The School of Industrial Art (now the High School of Art and Design) where he focused on painting and sculpture. Gradually he grew more interested in architecture and design, and after graduating high school began studying architecture at Columbia University. His father meanwhile had established a cabinet shop in Midtown Manhattan, and in 1947, Kagan began working with him rather than finishing a degree. There he learned the basics of furniture making, an experience he cited as profoundly formative. As masterful a cabinetmaker as his father was, young Kagan soon realized his own predilection was more conceptual. Drawing inspiration from a range of sources—the Bauhaus, modern sculpture, nature—Kagan experimented widely, always keeping an emphasis on comfort and functionality. By studying anatomy and drawing the human body, he tailored the lines and forms in his seating designs to complement the curvature of the spine and provide proper back support. He worked in a variety of materials, including different metals, but it was his sculpted wood forms that would prove most successful.
Kagan’s first signature design, the Barrel Chair (1947) was a cozily rounded lounge chair inspired by the shape of zeppelins he remembered seeing as a child in Germany. His first major commission was designing the furnishings for the Delegates Lounge of the United Nations at the original Lake Success, NY site. The success of these ventures made it possible for Kagan to open his own showroom shop in 1949 on East 65th Street. Then in 1950 he partnered with successful textile designer Hugo Dreyfuss to form Kagan–Dreyfuss, establishing their own factory and moving the showroom to a high-profile location on East 57th Street. Via his new partnership, Kagan produced what would become some of the most definitive pieces of modern American furniture–furniture that was as comfortable as it was visually alluring.
In response to conventional chairs and sofas that were stuffed with innersprings and topped by loose cushions, in 1950 Kagan introduced the Serpentine Sofa, which incorporated cushion and sofa as one integrated curvaceous form. Armless, with a large rounded end, here was a sofa that could stand in the middle of a room, its sculptural shape a complement to a client’s art collection–and because it could fit twice as many people as a conventional straight sofa, it was a social centerpiece as well. Strikingly modern and glamorous, the Serpentine became hugely sought-after, notably among a celebrity clientele, and brought Kagan considerable renown. Drawing from Scandinavian design and adding his penchant for fluid lines, Kagan designed lounge chairs with wood legs that stretched out in back, literally extending the concept of lounging. In 1953 he introduced his Tri-symmetric line of tables and seating distinguished by sculpted tripod bases most often in walnut or aluminum. In 1958 he presented the Capricorn, a line of indoor-outdoor furniture with open metalwork designs that were both ergonomic and intriguing to the eye. He also designed furnishings for the Monsanto House of the Future (1957- 1964) at Disneyland, encapsulating an ideal of mid-century modern design.
When in 1970 his partner Dreyfuss retired, Kagan moved his factory to Long Island City and the showroom to East 59th Street. That year he presented Omnibus, a collection of minimalist sectional seating that essentially defined contemporary sectional furniture. Through the 1970s Kagan produced new designs as well as iterations of earlier ones. Now often incorporating Lucite, and displaying a greater balance of straight lines and flat planes along with his signature curved forms, he greatly helped shape the look of 70s modern furniture. The decade also saw him take on commissions for large corporations, such as Warner Communications. In 1980 the New York Fashion Institute of Technology honored Kagan with a thirty-year retrospective exhibit.
Although he officially retired in 1988, Kagan remained quite active, serving as president of the New York chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), lecturing at the Parsons School of Design, and licensing designs to domestic and international manufacturers. In 1997 Tom Ford selected the Omnibus collection for all 360 Gucci stores worldwide, and in 1998 Kagan presented some of his classic designs at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York. In 2002 he designed the lobby for the Standard Hotel in Los Angeles and he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Brooklyn Museum. His 2003 Classic Collection for Ralph Pucci comprised a limited edition of new versions of earlier designs, and his 2008 Vladimir Kagan Couture Collection featured a selection encompassing his entire career. He designed one last limited-edition collection of furniture in 2009, the same year he was inducted in the Interior Designer Hall of Fame in tribute to his 62-year career. Vladimir Kagan died in 2016 at the age of 88. He believed that his mission as a furniture designer was to interpret the century, and indeed his iconic designs have come to represent the best of 20th-century design.
Museum Collections
Permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum London; the Brooklyn Museum and Cooper Hewitt Museum, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Pasadena Art Institute; Baltimore Museum of Fine Arts; Vitra Design Museum and Die Neue Samlung, Germany.
Exhibition
Vladimir Kagan: Three Decades of Design, Fashion Institute of Technology, NY, 1980
Publication
Vladimir Kagan, A Lifetime of Avant Garde Design, Pointed Leaf Press, NY, 2004
