Vladimir Kagan

Vladimir Kagan (August 29, 1927 – April 7, 2016) was an American furniture designer. He was inducted in the Interior Designer Hall of Fame in 2009, 62 years after he started designing and producing furniture.

His Midcentury modern furniture with "Sinuous wooden frame characteristics" has a modern feel. His style, inspired by everything from antiques and nature to the Bauhaus, emphasizes comfort and functionality.

He was married to the embroidery designer Erica Wilson (1928-2011). Together they had three children.

Vladimir Kagan was born on 29 August 1927 in Worms, Germany, The son of a Russian cabinetmaker, Vladimir Kagan's childhood was cut short by the rise of the Nazis. He emigrated to the United States in 1938. His early focus was painting and sculpture but in the following years he became eagerly attracted to architecture and design. Graduated from the School of Industrial Art in 1946, where he was an architecture major and then went on to study architecture at Columbia University.

In 1947 he joined his father Illi Kagan, a master cabinetmaker to work in his woodworking shop and learn furniture making from the ground up. In an interview he recalls his "father saying 'Measure three times and cut once'; I would be of the school of cut three times and never measure"

He opened his first personal shop in New York in 1949. In 1950 the Kagan-Dreyfus partnership began with a showroom/store on 125 East 57th Street in New York City. His early work included furniture for the Delegate's Cocktail Lounge at the United Nations and furniture for the "Monsanto House of the Future" at Disneyland. Vladimir Kagan is represented by Ralph Pucci International.

In April 2016, Kagan died due to a heart attack.

Kagan developed a reputation that earned him numerous design projects as well as a celebrity clientele. Some of his early clients included:

and companies such as:

Vladimir Kagan has served as chairman of the Advisory commission of the High School of Art and Design in New York. Member of numerous committees for the Architectural League of New York. Served on the faculty of Parsons The New School for Design and lectured extensively on the history of modern design in furniture and architecture. In 2001 received an honorary doctor of Art and Design from Kendall College of Art and Design. Received an honorary doctorate from the New York School of Interior design in 2009. Lectured at Yale University in 2010. Lectured at Philadelphia University in 2014.

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