The Museum of Arts & Design will present furniture design visionary George Beylerian’s captivating personal collection of miniature chairs—from the whimsical to the elegant—in the exhibition Have a Seat! The Beylerian Collection of Small Chairs. The more than 350 pieces on view were selected from the hundreds more that Beylerian, founder of Material ConneXion, has gathered over several decades. The exhibition runs through October 28, 2007.
Have a Seat! demonstrates the astonishing spectrum of creative expression found in this diminutive furniture form. Collected from around the world, these miniature chairs are made of twigs and plastic, ceramic and steel, and also include surprising materials such as theater ticket stubs, tin, raffia, gum wrappers, silk, wood, chrome, scrub brushes, buttons, yarn and stones, both real and faux. From one-half to 12 inches high, they display both technical virtuosity and artistic creativity. They range from the functional, used by manufacturers for promotion, to the fantastic, created by artists and designers such as Ron Arad, Robert Ebendorf and Cheryl Riley, and unfettered by actual use.
“George Beylerian's collection is wonderful—it not only reflects his personal obsession, ‘chairmania’ as he has dubbed it, but also shows how this passion has touched his many friends and colleagues who have so eagerly donated small chairs, both found and personally crafted for him,” says Dorothy Twining Globus, curator of exhibitions for the Museum of Arts & Design. “I suspect some of his friends were attracted to these appealing objects but happy to pass them on, rather than become addicted personally! The many chairs made especially made for George by artist and designer friends make his collection a most unusual one.”
‘Chairmania’
George Beylerian received his first miniature chair as a trade promotion gift. For several years, it lived on a shelf, eventually joined by a twig love-seat, then several more. As his modest collection grew, he realized that he was developing “chairmania” and his obsession to find more and more chairs became an active quest.
Today, Beylerian’s collection numbers in the hundreds. Many he found in flea markets and antique shops around the world. Many more came from friends and colleagues, happy to have a reason to gather these small and appealing treasures. He also inspired well-known architects and designers to create pieces for him.
THEMES
In the world of miniatures, finely crafted chairs find a ready market with avid collectors. The endless variations presented in the exhibition are grouped in eight themes:
Pretenders and Promoters
The apparent usefulness of a small chair provides an excuse to have it around, as seen in an array of advertising premiums and a variety of other functions from pipe caddy to sewing box. Salesman’s samples range from a swivel desk chair from the early 20th century, to a steel patio chaise lounge from the 1940s.
Americana
These styles abound and date back to the 19th century when models were required with every submission to the U.S Patent Office. In addition to the classic Adirondack chair, these include wing-back chair upholstered in an American flag, Shaker slat-back chairs and a bistro chair made of twisted, heavy-gauge wire with a wooden seat.
Outdoor, Twigs and Logs
This category includes both clever metal variations and funky rustic pieces literally made of sticks. Included are a bamboo and stenciled reed chair from France, a twig garden set of chairs and a swing from Germany, and from the early 20th century, a folding park chair from France and a folding American lawn chair of canvas and wood.
Transformed Chairs
Artists sometimes transform daily ephemera into unexpected forms: chairs made of paper tickets, cigarettes and lighters and empty bottles of chili pepper sauce. Here, chairs are made from flatware, scrub brushes, playing cards, hot dog rolls and pebbles. One French artist made a chair of wheat and roses.
Flights of Fantasy: Artist and Designer Chairs
These creations explore the symbols and meanings linked with the chair. From whimsy to metaphor, they push the meaning of the form. Works include Doug Fitch’s Dream Chair, in lapis blue resin with moons stars and planets, and on wheels; Michele Oka Doner’s bronze Terrible Chair, whose legs, seat and back are spiked with thorn-like projections; and the collector’s son, Gregory Beylerian’s Father’s Day Gift, of Fimo, copper and blades.
Small Comforts
The eternal quest for the perfect easy chair and the soothing rocker yielded these pieces. Included here are a 1930s Art Deco chair from France, a 1920s rocking chair whose sides are two black cats with arched backs, and a brightly lithographed tinplate toy chair.
Basic and Classic
This group documents the history of chair design with miniature examples from across time and around the world: Gerrit Rietveld’s celebrated 1918 Red and Blue Chair of painted wood, Josef Hoffmann’s Sitzmachine (1905), and Marcel Breuer’s renowned Wassily chair (1925) of steel and black leather.
Seats of Power
The association of the chair with control and status can be seen in this selection, which includes Thrones of Lilliput, of plastic Lego blocks; an intricate 19th century French high-back chair; and a model of a regal chair created to promote the famous Treasures of King Tut exhibition in the late 1970s.
Beylerian: Marketing European Design
George Beylerian was a pioneer in bringing advanced European design to America. In the 1960s, he was a leader in popularizing Italian design and plastic home furnishings in the United States through his store, Scarabaeus. In the 1970s, the Beylerian established the Casa Idea Shop at Bloomingdale’s; it was the first lifestyle shop in the U.S.
Beylerian was creative director of Steelcase Design Partnership, where he developed design and marketing strategies for the partnership’s design corporations. In 1997, he established Material ConneXion in New York (with offices in Cologne, Milan and Bangkok), the world’s largest global resource of its kind, with a library and extensive online database of more than 3,000 innovative materials listed by category (ceramics, glass, metals, polymers, and carbon-based derivatives.) -- www.madmuseum.org
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