The artist Donald Judd didn’t hold back his criticisms of the furniture industry. 'It’s impossible to go to the store and buy a chair,' he lamented in a 1993 essay. He went on to say that after William Morris and Mission-style pieces went out of fashion, 'there has been no furniture which is pleasurable to look at, fairly available, and moderate in price'. Almost everything made since the 1920s – with a few exceptions – has been ‘junk for consumers', he wrote. (Ouch.) And all of this is why he spent decades perfecting the proportions, materials, and construction of chairs, tables, benches, bookshelves, desks, and beds.
