366 Concept - Mid Century Icons

You almost miss it. Barbara Kwiatkowska is painting at an easel — it's a scene from Rybkowski's 1959 “Mr. Anatol Seeks a Million” – and somewhere behind her there's an RM58 armchair. It's not the point of the shot, it's furniture. It's doing what furniture does.

Roman Modzelewski designed the RM58 around a simple idea: one material, one curve, no seams. The Victoria & Albert Museum eventually bought one. The National Museum in Warsaw has two. But here, in 1959, it's just a chair in a film that nobody expected to become a design history footnote.

🎬 Mr. Anatol Seeks a Million, dir. Jan Rybkowski, 1959 © ZF RYTM

Chair Type 200-190 designed by Rajmund Teofil Hałas in 1963 is one of the most important projects in the history of Polish furniture manufacturing from the 1960s. The piece of furniture with a simple wooden structure, an exceptionally comfortable seat and a characteristic backrest has become an integral part of many Polish homes, restaurants and institutions.

Photo: art direction and production: