| Alfons Bach | |
| Birth Date: | 1904 |
| Birth Place: | Magdeburg, Germany |
| Death Date: | August 19, 1999 |
| Death Place: | Pensacola, Florida, U.S. |
| Nationality: | German |
| Education: | Berlin |
| Known For: | Industrial design, tubular steel furniture |
| Notable Works: | Remodeling of Sach's and the Seneca Textile Building |
| Movement: | Bauhaus |
Alfons Bach (1904 – August 19, 1999) was a German industrial designer and watercolor painter. He is known for his architectural design projects and his tubular steel furniture, which have been described as "icons for their period."[1]
Alfons Bach was born in Magdeburg, Germany. He grew up in Munich. He attended school in Berlin.[1] He moved to the United States in 1926, settling in New York, New York. Before his move, he had studied film and design.[2]
Bach designed the remodeling of Sach's and the Seneca Textile Building, both in New York City.[2] His work was exhibited in early contemporary industrial art shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1] In 1938 he designed his own home in Stamford, Connecticut. He led the project to build the Ridgeway Shopping Center, one of the first shopping malls in the United States.[2] Bach designed tubular steel furniture in the 1930s for the Lloyd Manufacturing Company. They continued to produce his pieces until 1947. These tubular pieces are considered a link between Bauhaus and modern design style.[1] He moved to Florida in 1959. He designed the Palm Trail Plaza and Palm Trail Yacht Club in Delray Beach.[3] He curated the United States exhibition at the International Industrial Design Exhibition in 1969.[2] He designed work for General Electric, Keystone Silver, Pacific Mills and Bigelow-Samford. He served as president of the American Designers Institute.[1]
In 1992, he moved to Pensacola, Florida where he died in a nursing home on August 19, 1999, at the age of 95.[1] [4]
His work is held in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery.[1] [2] A set of 17th-century sliding-door panels from a Zen temple in Kyoto, Japan, owned by Bach and his wife, Anita, reside in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[1]