“A Chair is a very difficult object. A skyscraper is almost easier. That is why Chippendale is famous.”
From Kraushaar Galleries (New York):
These words by the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe form a theme for Kraushaar Galleries’ first spring exhibition. We will present a selection of paintings and works on paper that include a chair as a primary or supporting element.
During the first decades of the 20th century, studio scenes frequently included a chair as a subject in a room, like Gifford Beal’s formal portrait “Harrison Cady’s Studio,” or as a support for a subject, as in John Sloan’s “Kathleen Resting” or William Glackens’s “The Breakfast Porch.”
As Modernist theories influenced American art, the chair took on architectural qualities, as apparent in the two portraits of Bea Ault, a painting by Marguerite Zorach, and a drawing by George Ault. Ruth Asawa and Elmer Bischoff straddle a line between
painterly representation and elements of abstraction, while Jack Tworkov pushes the chair to complete abstraction.
The exhibition can be viewed from the antique copies of Chippendale chairs that have been a part of the Galleries’ exhibition space for about 100 years.
“A Chair is a Very Difficult Object” is on view through May 24, 2019, at Kraushaar Galleries (New York, New York).
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