What’s not to love about the mid-century modern interior? It was a time when furniture and home decor oozed simplistic, clean and sophisticated styling. Bold colours could be found everywhere, achieving a perfect balance of fun and sensible. Even today, the mid-century interior is a must-have look for many homes.
If your home furnishings echo the modern stylings of the 1950s and 1960s, you’ll want to choose art pieces that compliment it perfectly. If you are wondering which style of mid-century art will best compliment your home decor, we’ve put together this handy reference guide to make choosing the perfect piece a breeze.
Mid-Century Colour
Mid-Century artists were indeed not afraid of a bright colour or two! So it’s surprising when the modern contemporary interpretation is focused on neutral tones. In contrast, many of the original pieces had a series of thick, bright, bold gestural strokes throughout the pieces. Real mid-century art was colourful, playful and flamboyant with masculine lines that were contrasted with lighter feminine pastel colours—select retro wall art with pastel tones that really pop and compliment the rest of your furnishings.
Forward Thinking
Many pieces of mid-century art depict feelings of excitement and fearfulness over technology and the uncertainty of the future. The mid-century was a big time for technological advancements. The impending moon landing was a hot topic. Televisions became the norm in family homes, and microwaves were introduced to revolutionise home cooking. Within artwork of this period, you would often find shapes such as spheres, circles, dots and boomerang shapes reflecting a futuristic styling. Consider incorporating these retro yet futuristic tones into your wall art with retro posters from the era or a painting of a mid-century vision of a robot in bright and bold styles.
Mid Century Portraits
The mid-century saw families wanting to turn their homes into a stylish and comfortable space—getting away from the image that the house is just a functional place to eat and sleep. With this movement, wall art became more popular, and some of the most famous portraits of this time were The Green Lady or Mysterious Girl portraits, which could be found on many people’s walls. Many pieces saw women being portrayed in a more relaxed way compared to the more formal portraits of the past for the first time. Nowadays, you can buy paintings with a mid-century twist through classic tones and colour schemes of the period that make them so beautifully unique.
Choosing mid-century artwork for your home can be a lot of fun. Browse our mid-century art collection for inspiration for artwork to add a mid-century twist to your home.
