The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design October 17, 2020 – January 3, 2021
This exhibition, organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville and the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation, presents a survey of exceptional American chair design from the early 19th century to the present day.
The chair is experienced not only as a functional item, but as sculp- tural in view — the chair as art. Each of the approximately 40 chairs in the exhibition was chosen for their beauty and historical context with important social, economic, political and cultural influences. Selections from the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation are joined by contemporary designs offering a stylis- tic journey in furniture with show-stoppers by John Henry Belter, George Hunzinger, Herter Brothers, Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi and Frank Gehry among others. “The Art of Seating” is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville, in collaboration with the Thomas H. and Diane De- Mell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.
Curator: Ben Thompson, curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Jacksonville
Harry Bertoia (1915 – 1978) and Knoll Associates, New York, large diamond lounge chair, ca. 1952. Kenneth Smythe, Synergistic Synthesis XVII sub b1 chair, 2003. Both courtesy of the Thomas H. & Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D Foundation.
The Seated Child: Early Children’s Chairs from Georgia Collections October 17, 2020 – January 3, 2021
This exhibition will present about two dozen children’s chairs as well as a doll’s chair and adult chairs for comparison of scale and style.
Not all of these chairs were made in Georgia, but all are in Geor- gia collections. Most of the chairs are handmade in the tradition of turned chairs; some are the products of proto-industrial shops called variety works. Most of them also retain their life histories of paint and wear from being used as a support while children were learning to walk.
Curator: Dale L. Couch, curator of decorative arts
Alfred or Jesse Pierce (active south Georgia), child’s armchair with rockers, ca. 1880 – 1920. Unidentified woods and orange paint with hide seating. Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Mercier.
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