T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings

Terence Howard Robsjohn-Gibbings (“Gibby”) gained early renown for the furniture designs inspired by classical Greece that he debuted in 1937. “On Greek vases I saw furniture that was young, untouched by time,” he said. “Vitality, surging through the human figures on the vases, surged through this furniture.” After relocating from England to New York, Robsjohn-Gibbings would set up a showroom on Madison Avenue and quickly earned a reputation as a tastemaker among the city’s elite; his spare, uncluttered designs were popular for their attempt to reconcile Art Deco whimsy with pure, classicist ideals. Robsjohn-Gibbings situated himself in opposition to Modernists like Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Marcel Breuer, whose designs he dismissed as utilitarian and lifeless, aligning himself instead with more “organic” artists like Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore. He also admired Frank Lloyd Wright.