HAVE A SEAT

Russell Megee sits in Frank Gehry’s Cross Check Chair, which is constructed with interwoven and bent ribbons of laminated white maple.

RUSSELL MEGEE EXHIBITS “A CENTURY OF CHAIRS” THIS MONTH AT TAP ARCHITECTURE

BY EVIE KLOPP HOLZER PHOTOS BY DON RISI

WHEN ARCHITECT RUSSELL MEGEE starts talking about modernism, you’d better pull up a chair. Frank Gehry, Charles Eames, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – he speaks these names freely and quickly, as if common vernacular. His passion for modern architects and the chairs they have masterfully produced is as deep as his knowledge on the subject.

“If I go off, I can tell – when someone’s eyes glaze over and I go, ‘Alright, I know. I’ve been talking about this chair for two hours,’” Megee said.

On Oct. 7, Megee will share his personal collection of 100 chairs – most by world-renowned modern architects – in an exhibit at TAP Architecture downtown. The exhibit coincides with the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Week and will be part of the Oct. 17 architecture tour.

“It’s going to be some eye candy in here,” he said. “There’s going to be 100 legit, real-deal [chairs] that you won’t see anywhere, except for in a museum.”

Megee’s first chair purchase happened by chance in the ’90s. He was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue in northwest Oklahoma City when he noticed two chairs on the sidewalk of B&L Furniture.

“I was like, ‘Wow. I’ve seen those,’” he said. “So, I went home and got a book – and there it was! The famous architect who did the Barcelona Pavilion. He was in the Bauhaus, and he came to the United States in 1937. [I realized] that’s the Barcelona chair!”

Mies van der Rohe designed the Barcelona chair for his German Pavilion at the Barcelona Exposition of 1929. The chairs became popular in the 1950s and were often sold in pairs, Megee explained, because Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Illinois – his version of the glass house – featured two of them.

Megee rushed back to B&L Furniture to purchase the pair. The seller wouldn’t budge on his $40 price, but Megee gladly paid it. He knew the pair’s true value was about $1,200.

“Architects were building modern homes, and the homes needed to be filled with things – so there you go,” he said. “They started having competitions for modern items. They were really trying to introduce modern living and modern household products to the American public.”

It turns out there is a strong connection between modern architects and the modern chairs they designed.

“It’s almost some kind of Zen-type approach,” Megee said. “Maybe it’s so simplistic that your conceptual ideas that you have for your modern approach to architecture are all simplified into one item – and there it is, conclusive, in one chair. Those greatest minds in architecture, they all did a chair. You can’t name a real famous guy who didn’t have a chair.”

Megee has found chairs through eBay, auctions and thrift stores. Many times, the sellers didn’t know the treasures they possessed. But Megee? Oh, he knew. He continues to collect modern chairs today, and he’ll tell you all about it – if you have the time.

Read more details about the chair exhibit at tapokc.com.

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RUSSELL MEGEE’S FAVORITE CHAIRS

1. Paris Chair

Stacked and laminated birdseye maple, lacquered wood, enameled steel By Martine Bedin for Memphis Milano Italy, 1986 Memphis Milano was an Italian design and architecture group founded by Ettore Sottsass. The group was active from 1980 to 1987 and known for its postmodern interiors.

Megee mentioned the chair was more for viewing than for sitting. For the Memphis Milano group, form did not follow function. “They would throw rocks at functionalism. They kind of set the design world on their ears when they came out – probably not even thinking they were going to be successful. Now their stuff, people just throw money at everything they did.”

2. Eames Rocking Armchair Rod Base (RAR)

Steel, zinc, fiberglass, rubber, wood By Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller America, 1950 One of Megee’s favorite chairs is this molded shell chair, designed by Charles Eames and his wife Ray. This rocking chair version, which was used to rock U.S. Olympic gymnast Bart Conner as a baby, entered Megee’s collection via trade.

“I was doing a chair show at OU at the College of Architecture in 1991,” he said. “Harold Conner was the director for construction, and he saw me setting it up. He said, ‘I have some chairs that I’ll loan you.’”

Megee added Conner’s muchsought-after “Coconut” chair (by George Nelson) and this “RAR” to his show. At the end of the show, Conner was admiring Megee’s “Tulip” chair (by Eero Saarinen), and a trade ensued.

3. Seconda Chair

Steel tubing, slotted steel seat, polyurethane foam cylinders By Mario Botta for Alias Italy, 1982 Mario Botta designed the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art building, known for its beautiful striped cylinder-shaped tower, and this chair features similar architectural lines.

“This chair is from one of the more famous Italian guys, but he did not go along with the Memphis Group or the Alchimia or Superstudio,” Megee said. “So much was all black and dark from that post-modern [time]. And the Memphis people were just the opposite. They put color on everything.”

4. Mezzadro Stool

Chromium-plated steel, beech By Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Zanotta Italy, 1957 “This is a 1957 design. They said it was too avant-garde, so they didn’t make it until 1970,” Megee said.

Brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni designed the chair for the exhibition “Shapes and Colours in Today’s Homes” in Como, Italy. The seat resembles a tractor – with good reason. The chair frame is actually a spring-based steel strip, the same design used in tractors to absorb the shock of uneven ground. This stool can be found in orange, red, yellow, white and black.

5. Bouloum Chaise Lounge

Fiberglass, foam, fabric By Olivier Mourgue France, 1969 In Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1969 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Kubrick worked with Olivier Mourgue to create futuristic chairs. Megee described the scene where Dr. Floyd walks through the Hilton lobby of Space Station Five on his way to the moon. “Everything’s white, and there are these red chairs,” he said. “This chair is from the same line.”

The red chairs from the movie were Mourgue’s “Djinn” chaise lounge. “This is ‘Bouloum,’ named after his imaginary friend,” Megee said. “Some people would take them and put them by the pool – a piece of fiberglass, just like that. Upholstered, they are rare.”