Royal Alberta Museum presents Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design

Royal Alberta Museum presents Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design an exhibition on view through OCTOBER 6, 2013.

The Art of Seating: Two Hundred Years of American Design 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 sculptural in view—the chair as art.

Each of the approximately 40 chairs in the exhibition is chosen for its beauty and historical context with important social, economic, political and cultural influences. Each chair has a story to tell—whether of an American community, an individual artist, an engineering innovation or even natural epidemics.

Selections from The Jacobsen Collection of American Art are joined by contemporary designs offering a stylistic journey in furniture with show-stoppers by John Henry Belter, George Hunzinger, Herter Brothers, Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles & 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 DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation and is toured by International Arts & Artists, Washington, DC. www.royalalbertamuseum.ca