The chair has been inspiring artists for centuries and has taken centre stage as the subject of artists work, including modern behemoths like Vincent Van Gogh and Sarah Lucas.
The humble chair has, however, been an art form in itself since people began furnishing their homes!
Through experiments in engineering and design; comfort, style and practicality have been explored by designers and architects, creating icons along the way. Modern masterpieces such as the Egg, the Tulip and the Papa Bear are designs that were way ahead of their time.
Today we're sharing some of our favourite artists and designers who continue to create chairs that straddle the boundary between art and design. So take a seat ;) and scroll the inspirational beauties below. Some of them could be yours too depending on your budget.
Soft Geometry is a Californian based design studio experimenting with form and materials to create beautiful art pieces for the home. Their fluffy chair, pictured above, takes days to create. Thousands of loops of organic yarn are individually hand-tied and knotted to form the fluffy cushions, that sit on top of a minimalist steel frame. We love how these contrasting elements sit together to combine the slow, organic and hand-made knotted yarn against the hard steel, geometric, industrially formed frame.
£2400 from 1stdibs
Charlotte Kingsnorth creates characterful, biomorphic, sculptural pieces by hand from her studio in London. The Hi!Breed: Squishy Thonet Chair is an iconic piece of Charlotte's work; which uses a vintage bentwood Thonet chair to form the structure which Charlotte builds on, covering it in plumped up and stuffed silk green velvet, hand-stitched in place. Buttons pull the fabric in tight to emphasise its curves in all the right places.
£3500 from The New Craftsmen or 1stdibs
Agnes Studio is a Guatemalan-based design studio by Estefania de Ros & Gustavo Quintana-Kennedy. Inspired by pre-Columbian craftsmanship, they employ the skills of local craftsmen to create stunning pieces of furniture, including the Lana Chair above. The Lana chair is made from Momostenango wool, which is typically used for rugs and tapestries, thanks to its robust strength. The designers have elevated the use of this material to create the main body and focus of the Lana chair.
Available on their website
Misha Kahn is a designer and sculptor based in Brooklyn, New York. He creates fantastical, playful pieces that could be characters from a parallel universe. The American Gothic Chair (did you spot the pitchfork) is created in a similar way to Catherine Kingsnorth's pieces; using a frame made from plywood or steel Misha sculpts, stuffs and plumps materials before upholstering them in multi-coloured cashmere to create beautiful curvy pieces.
Pierre Yovanovitch founded his Paris design atelier in 2001, after turning his passion in interior architecture and design into a career. His previous role as a menswear designer for Pierre Cardin was the perfect training for tailoring his"Daydream Papa Bear" and "Daydream Mama Bear" armchairs. The bear-shaped forms are finished with hand-stitched embroidered arms and hands, that wrap around the chairs, holding them tightly.
Contact R and Company to find out prices.