I think one of the
most fascinating areas that reflect aesthetics in everyday objects is furniture design. For a few centuries,
furniture design was predicated on accommodating the human form based on social
customs and costume of the time. For example, during the Queen Anne period in England (reigned 1702–1714),
card playing was wildly fashionable, and chairs for card tables were often
designed with a padded rail on the top of the back splat so that a special
someone, leaning on the padded rail, could watch the player sitting at the
table. In the 19th century, during the height of the crinoline (hoop
skirt) period (1850s–1860s), side chairs
were often designed with short legs and no arms to accommodate the voluminous skirt and, preserve a woman’s
modesty, preventing the hoop from tipping up and revealing a (gasp) ankle. The Arts and Crafts movement (1860s–1890s), which
emphasized a combination of fine art and design, signaled the beginning of the
period of furniture design where the body was given less gravity in design than
aesthetics.
Furniture of the 1970s and 1980s became a new province of
innovative artistic design, regardless of whether the resulting item was
comfortable or not. What occurred was a swing of the pendulum in the opposite
direction, where bold design was more important than accommodating the human
body. Isn’t it ironic that what started in the Arts and Crafts movement and the Bauhaus ended up rather far from what those
artists envisioned—a grafting of both the comfort of furniture and its artistic
qualities? I have actually had the opportunity to sit in an example of this “Experimental Edges” piece, and found myself
sliding forward, perhaps because I was so paranoid that the wonderful rhythmic
support would collapse!
Frank Gehry studied architecture in southern
California, working at first in the office of the architecture firm Victor
Gruen and Associates. Gehry opened his own architectural firm in 1962 after a
trip to France, during which he was excited by the sculpture of Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) and
architecture of Le Corbusier (1885–1954). He
soon became famous for the use of daring, unexpected shapes and choices of
materials for buildings. His early buildings were known for Gehry’s use of
corrugated tin, wrought iron, netting, and chain link fencing—many of these
were often recycled materials to make his structures environmentally
responsible. He approaches each building as a sculptural object rather than
being interested in appropriateness for the purpose of the building.
Gehry approaches
furniture with the same spirit of this philosophy. This piece, as well as
others in the Easy Edges and Experimental
Edges series, was an attempt to create an environmentally responsible type of
furniture, cheap to reproduce and affordable for the mass market. The layers of
corrugated cardboard—laminated and supplemented by metal rods—create fluid,
roller coaster-like shapes.
Correlations to Davis
programs: Explorations in Art Grade 1: 6. 35; Explorations in Art Grade 2: 6.35-36
studio; A Personal Journey: 3.1; Exploring Visual Design: 1, 2, 6, 12; The
Visual Experience: 12.4; Discovering Art History: 2.2
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