C 1 ¹⁹⁵¹

Willy Van Der Meeren was ­perhaps the most committed ­designer of ‘modern social ­furniture’, the movement with which Adelbert Van de Walle, the curator of this ­museum in the 1950s, organized three sales exhibitions. At these ‘national fairs for modern social furniture’, Van de Walle gathered designers, companies and the public around modern and affordable Belgian design. The C1 chair from the O.M. series by Willy Van Der Meeren was displayed on the Tubax stand at the second fair in 1957. The designer had begun working for this Vilvoorde-based company in 1951. It specialized in the production of straightforward office furniture. The series was available in a range of colours and natural wood sorts, painted or sometimes clad, and could be arranged in different ­ensembles. Van Der Meeren’s use of bright colours and a subtle elegant line meant that this piece of ­furniture was sought-after in post-war standard family houses.

SOURCES

Mil De Kooning, Willy Van Der Meeren (1923) en Tubax, in: Hedendaags design. Alfred Hendrickx en het fifties-meubel in België, Vakgroep Architectuur en Stedenbouw van de Rijksuniversiteit Gent, Gent, 2000, pp. 85-97;
Met dank aan Mil De Kooning en Fredie Floré.