Alfons Bach

{{short description|German painter}} {{Infobox artist | honorific_prefix = | name = Alfons Bach | honorific_suffix = | image =  | image_size = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | birth_name =  | birth_date = 1904 | birth_place = Magdeburg, Germany | death_date = August 19, 1999 | death_place = Pensacola, Florida, U.S. | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates =  | education = Berlin | alma_mater = | known_for = Industrial design, tubular steel furniture | notable_works = Remodeling of Sach's and the Seneca Textile Building | style = | movement = Bauhaus | spouse = | awards =  | elected = | patrons = | memorials = | website =  }}

'''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."<ref name=NYT>{{cite web|last=Pace|first=Eric|title=Alfons Bach, 95, Designer of Tubular Furniture|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/23/arts/alfons-bach-95-designer-of-tubular-furniture.html|work=Arts|publisher=The New York Times|accessdate=1 October 2012}}</ref>

==Early life and career==

Alfons Bach was born in Magdeburg, Germany. He grew up in Munich. He attended school in Berlin.<ref name=NYT/> He moved to the United States in 1926, settling in New York, New York. Before his move, he had studied film and design.<ref name=CH>{{cite web|title=Alfons Bach|url=http://collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18053553/|work=Collection|publisher=Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum|accessdate=1 October 2012}}</ref>

==Career==

Bach designed the remodeling of Sach's and the Seneca Textile Building, both in New York City.<ref name=CH/> His work was exhibited in early contemporary industrial art shows at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.<ref name=NYT/> 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.<ref name=CH/> 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.<ref name=NYT/> He moved to Florida in 1959. He designed the Palm Trail Plaza and Palm Trail Yacht Club in Delray Beach.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newyorksocialdiary.com/across-the-nationacross-the-world/2011/urbane-developments-miami-delray|title=Urbane Developments: Miami & Delray|author=Mayhew, Augustus |date=11 July 2011|work=New York Social Diary|accessdate=6 February 2017}}</ref> He curated the United States exhibition at the International Industrial Design Exhibition in 1969.<ref name=CH/> He designed work for General Electric, Keystone Silver, Pacific Mills and Bigelow-Samford. He served as president of the American Designers Institute.<ref name=NYT/>

==Later life and death==

In 1992, he moved to Pensacola, Florida where he died in a nursing home on August 19, 1999, at the age of 95.<ref name=NYT/><ref>{{cite news |title=Alfons Bach |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/pensacola-news-journal-obituary-for-alfo/130045817/ |access-date=15 August 2023 |work=Pensacola News Journal |date=21 August 1999}}</ref>

==Legacy==

His work is held in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and the Yale University Art Gallery.<ref name=NYT/><ref name=CH/> 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.<ref name=NYT/>

==References== {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bach, Alfons}} Category:1904 births Category:1999 deaths Category:German industrial designers Category:German watercolourists Category:Artists from Magdeburg Category:Painters from Saxony-Anhalt Category:People from Pensacola, Florida Category:20th-century German painters Category:20th-century German male artists Category:German male painters Category:Mid-century modern Category:Date of birth missing