Design Episodes: The Modern Chair

April 23 - September 11, 2016 - This exhibition presents iconic examples from throughout the 20th century by makers including Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand, Harry Bertoia, and Charles and Ray Eames, all of whose work contributed to the evolution of a new, modern ideal.  The first episode of the series focuses on a piece of furniture that has captivated the popular imagination like no other: the modern chair. Beginning in the Machine Age with the promise of industrial production, chair design took off in new directions dynamically engaged with contemporary forms. Furniture design moved out of the realms of the carpenter and the decorator as architects and industrial designers took on the chair as a problem of engineering, materials research, and the scientific study of the human body. With this new attitude, one of the most important drivers of modern chair design became new materials—from tubular steel in 1920s Europe to the later largely American development of plywood and fiberglass chairs.