"The Art of Seating" Exhibition

Chairs share the rooms in which we live and work. These everyday objects hold our bodies in space while we sit or lounge, meeting design challenges and aesthetic preferences. As objects frequently used, abused, and replaced, chairs often best reflect the changing fashions in furniture and decorating styles. This exhibition from a single private collection presents seating furniture from the 19th, 20th, and early 21st centuries. The 43 chairs in The Art of Seating reveal stylistic, philosophical, and technological changes over 200 years of American design. Made from a variety of materials, using a range of processes, these chairs demonstrate the complexity and inventiveness of design within the cultural and historical context of each creation. The chairs present a timeline of American design history. Including iconic chairs from well-known 20th-century designers and architects such as Frank Gehry, Robert Venturi, Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames, and Isamu Noguchi, along with 19th-century designers John Henry Belter and the Herter Brothers firm, The Art of Seating tells the dynamic and engaging story of furniture design and production in the United States.