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THE ART OF SEATING: 200 YEARS OF AMERICAN DESIGN
BY JONATHAN STUHLMAN, PHD
Chairs are an integral part of our everyday lives. They fill our homes, our places of work, and are found just about everywhere else that we might go. In fact, I’d venture a guess that you’re likely sitting on one as you read this! Yet perhaps because they are so omnipresent, we don’t give them too much thought.
Along with being functional objects that are a key part of our environment, seating has even entered our language and vocabulary in fascinating ways. If you want to welcome a visitor you might say, “please take a seat.” A person in a leadership position is the “chair” of a committee, board, or department. And a country’s capital is sometimes called its “seat” of power. Yet despite the ubiquitous presence, we likely don’t think about how chairs came to look like they do, how they are constructed, or what their backstories might be.
From September 17 through February 25, 2024, visitors to Mint Museum Uptown will be invited to see chairs through a different lens and to think about many aspects of America’s history presented through The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design. The exhibition will feature more than 50 examples of American seating furniture, all from the DeMell Jacobsen Collection, created between the early 19th century and the early 21st century.
The exhibition reveals that chairs have much to tell us. They are not merely props in our homes, but rather thoughtfully designed and manufactured sculptural objects that speak to a wide range of topics. They trace the development of new materials, technologies, and manufacturing processes. They reveal changing aesthetics, fashions, and artistic movements. They remind us that immigrants to the United States have made important contributions to this country’s history and culture. And they touch on the way that we have lived, worked, and relaxed for more than two centuries. In many ways, chairs are a reflection of the constant change and evolution of the United States, from the era of its founding to the present moment.
Although the exhibition has been on tour around the country for more than a decade, the Mint’s presentation is special, adding several wonderful examples that have entered the collection since it started touring, and revamping the presentation to play upon the unique qualities and histories of these fascinating objects.
Rather than being presented in a strict chronological order, the show will be divided into six distinct sections: comfort, the natural world, inspiration from the past innovation, immigration; simplicity, and whimsy. From 19th-century examples like the Finlay Brothers’ neoclassical chair and settee, and Thomas Warren’s innovative Centripetal Spring Arm Chair to 20th-century classics, such as Ray and Charles Eames’ LCW Chair, Frank Lloyd Wright’s office chair created for the S.C. Johnson and Son building, and Isamu Noguchi’s playful Rocking Stool, visitors will be sure to find something that intrigues, inspires, and delights.
The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design is generously presented by PNC. Additional individual support is kindly provided by Mary and Walt Beaver, Sarah G. Cooper, Lucy and Hooper Hardison, and Kati and Chris Small.
A word from Diane DeMell Jacobsen, PhD
Over the years, and especially at the beginning, friends, family, and colleagues who knew that I was trying to build a representative collection of American art asked: “Why focus on chairs along with painting and sculpture?” The puzzled looks on their faces indicated that their questions were serious, not critical.
For me, chairs are pieces of sculpture on which we all happen (or are lucky enough!) to sit. There are very few art objects that tell the history of American design, craftsmanship, industry, and technology as well as chairs. In much the same way that other art forms (such as the paintings and sculpture in the collection) evolved over the last 200 years, so, too, has chair design.
As I began seriously building this collection in 2003, I kept thinking about a comment made by my late husband every time I brought an “antique” chair into our home. He said, “I thought that when I finally made it in life, I could have new furniture. Nothing makes it through the door that isn’t a hundred years old!” For sure, he did have a good sense of humor. He wanted his legacy to be for people to learn about and truly appreciate all kinds of American art. And I’m hoping he would have been pleased that today almost half of the collection includes chairs that are less than 100 years old!
— Excerpted with permission from The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design catalogue, available in The Mint Museum Store or online at store.mintmuseum.org.
