$14,000

United States
1995

Prototype stacking chair hand-built of aluminum by furniture designer and artist Richard Schultz as a full-size 3-D model exploring the ergonomic and sculptural qualities of a design in which the seat is formed as a continuous ribbon of sheet metal, following in a modernist paradigm first explored by Gerrit Rietveld in the early 1920’s. Schultz experimented with this design in 1995 during the time he was creating his famous Topiary series of outdoor furniture. Never produced, this is a second example from the same design sequence as Stacking Chair #1, listed separately, and likely an earlier effort as the seat here is composed of two pieces of aluminum sheet metal joined at the back, and this model is lacking the decorative perforations. Still, the scalloped edge at the bottom of the backrest and the solid sheet of the seat gives this model its own sculptural character. Schultz (1926-2021), while perhaps not a household name, is still a furniture designer of the first order, with justly renowned lines of outdoor furniture for Knoll and for his own company, Richard Schultz Design, to his credit. Courtesy of his early training with Harry Bertoia, he brought a sculptural sensibility to the ergonomic problems of furniture design (his own sculptures were shown at MoMA in the early 1960’s, before he turned his full attention to his work for Knoll). Provenance: the collection of Richard Schultz.

Featured in "Line, Form, Space", Design Special of DSCENE Magazine, Issue 20, 2024 — Eliot Sumner Cover Story.

Condition
In as found condition. Scratches and scuffs to the sheet metal seat; exposed welds and scratches to the tubular metal frame. All consistent with its purpose as a working model.

Measurements
Height: 33 in.
Width/length: 23 in.
Depth: 21 in.

Specifications
Number of items: 1
Materials/techniques: Hand-cut, joined, and welded aluminum