The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design tells an American story of one of the most common furnishing items found in the home, the workplace, and any sort of public setting, both interior and exterior.
Using 40 chairs which span more than two centuries of design and manufacture, The Art of Seating captures a slice of Americana that parallels the arc of United States history. Handmade chairs such as Ladderback Doll’s Chair (c. 1800-25), Shaker Rocking Chair (c. 1840), and the Appalachian Bent Willow Arm Chair (c. 1890) demonstrate America’s utilitarian method of creation, whether pre- or post-industry. Other examples illustrate the variety of revival movements of the 19th century, including Egyptian, Gothic, and Rococo.
Twentieth-century examples display a shift to simpler, less decorative design such as Oxbow Arm Chair (c. 1903) designed by David Robertson Smith and manufactured by Stickley Brothers in Michigan, LCW (Lounge Chair Wood) (c. 1952), designed by Charles and Ray Eames and manufactured by Herman Miller Furniture Company in Michigan, and Solid Elm Ball Chair (1970), designed and manufactured by Jon Brooks. Other examples represent the imaginative eye of architects, including the Johnson Wax Company Chair (c. 1938) designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and manufactured by Steelcase Corporation in Michigan, the Grasshopper Arm Chair (1946) designed by Eero Saarinen, architect of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial and Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, and manufactured by Knoll Associates of New York, and High Stool (1971), a bar chair made of corrugated cardboard, masonite and wood designed by Frank Gehry and manufactured by Easy Edges, Inc., in California.
Early 21st-century examples represent work by Vivian Beer as designer and manufacturer with Current (2004), and Laurie Beckerman’s Ionic Bench (2010), fabricated by Heritage Woodshop in New York.
The Art of Seating is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville in collaboration with the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC.
All chairs in this exhibition have been loaned by the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation. Special thanks to Mr. Andrew VanStyn, Director of Acquisitions, Conservation and Photography for the Jacobsen Collection of American Chairs.
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Related Programs /
Director’s Circle Preview Reception
March 8, 6 pm
RSVP by March 1 to Catherine Renner at 912.790.8844 or rennerc@telfair.org
Lecture by Ben Thompson, Curator of The Art of Seating, and Members’ Opening
March 8 / 7 pm
Free for members or with museum admission. Sponsored by the Telfair Academy Guild.
Lecture by Tania Sammons: Sitting in Savannah
May 2 / 6 pm
Free Admission Sponsored by the City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs
Free Weekend at Telfair Academy: Art of Seating and Sitting in Savannah
May 2-4| TA
Free Admission Sponsored by the City of Savannah Department of Cultural Affairs
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Top: Designed by Warren McArthur Jr. (1885-1961); Manufactured by Warren McARthur Corp., Rome, NY; Sling Seat Lounge Chair, c. 1935; Photo by Michael Koryta and Andrew VanStyn
Handmade; Shaker Rocking Chair, 1840
Frank Lloyd Wright; Johnson Wax Company Chair, 1938
