Chrome-Plated
Metal or plastic objects coated with a thin electroplated layer of chromium, giving a bright, mirror-like, hard-wearing finish.
No works indexed yet · 10 related artists
No open-access works for Chrome-Plated are in the index yet. They will appear here as more collections are indexed.
About
Chrome plating deposits a very thin layer of chromium onto steel, brass or plastic by electrolysis, usually over a layer of nickel. Commercial plating developed in the 1920s, and its hard, bluish mirror shine quickly became a sign of the machine age.
Modernist furniture designers embraced plated tubular steel from the mid-1920s. Marcel Breuer's chairs, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's cantilevered MR chairs and the tubular pieces by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand (1928) used shining metal frames to look light, hygienic and industrial, and chrome soon became the standard finish for such designs. American designers of the 1930s applied it to streamlined radios and toasters, and after the Second World War it defined car bumpers and diner stools. Clive Barker played on that glamour in the 1960s with chrome-plated casts of everyday objects. Look for a cool, bluish reflection, unlike the warmer shine of nickel or silver.
