Norman Cherner

1920-1987

Trained in the Bauhaus tradition of interdisciplinary design, Cherner’s work encompassed everything from furniture, graphics, lighting, glassware, to his innovative work in prefabricated housing. He explored the idea of home as a design concept, specifically creating affordable furniture for low-cost modular dwellings. Cherner is perhaps best known for the molded plywood ‘Cherner Chair,’ which was popularized at the time for being featured in Norman Rockwell's 1961 painting "The Artist at Work" on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. In 1999, Cherner's sons Benjamin and Thomas formed the Cherner Chair Company to revive their father’s designs and produce them as he had originally intended.