Furniture as Art

Various Artists

Art critic and writer Nicolas Calas was invited to select with Marian Goodman an exhibition of furniture made by fine artists. Mr. Calas writes in his introduction to the exhibition:

In Against Method, 1975, Paul Fayerabend made the point that intellectual progress can only be achieved by stressing the will of the scientist at the expense of methodology. This is why he calls himself both an anarchist (which means without master in Greek) and a dadaist. In Le Nouvel esprit scientitique, 1934, Gaston Bachelard opposed experiments to experience and discontinuity to linear progress. The experimenter must gamble. Why not tie a chair to a painting on· the wall? Why would vanguard artists experiment with furniture, a category of objects highly utilitarian, if it were not to challenge our confidence in their function?

Furniture as Art is unique exhibit of furniture by artists, architects and designers. The show contains Historical furniture of the Glasgow School represented by Rennie Mackintosh's Ladderback Chair, Bauhaus design by G. T. Rietveld consisting, of the "Zig Zag" Chair, as well as Chaise Longue by French architect Corbusier and an American work by Meret Oppenheim "Table with Bird’s Feet".

Contemporary furniture includes a table by minimalist Sol Lewitt and Fabric works by Phillip Maberry and Kurt Buetow. New Yorkers, Christopher Sproat and Robert Guillot, contribute Chairs and Lighting works. Canadians, Wally May and Don Warkentin, show a humorous attempt at building a Deck Chair and a Space Age Design Table, respectively.

Artist: Arman, Richard Artschwager, Larry Bell, Scott Burton, Loren Calaway, Luis Camnitzer, Ron Cooper, Robert Guillot, Dakota Jackson, Neil Jenney, Leandro Katz, Frederick Kiesler, Roy Lichtenstein, Sol Lewitt, Alian McCullom, Max Neuhaus, Alastair Noble, Meret Oppenheim, Eric Orr, Lucas Samaras, Christopher Sproat, Bob Watts, and Robert Wilson.

Curated by Marian Goodman and art critic and writer, Nicolas Calas. Organized and circulated by the Marian Goodman Gallery, New York.