You know that awkward moment when you're about to reach the end of another month and you just at that moment realise you haven't written a rambling blog entry about a chair you really covet at the moment?

No? Oh...

Well, regardless of that, I thought I'd stir things up a bit this month with a bit of art/chair design cross over:

Reflective Arm Chair

Oh YES. This month has totally been devoted to Donald Judd. Born in 1928, worked with architecture, art and furniture (my hero!)

Blatantly inspired by the lovely Gerrit Rietveld, oui? (Image Scanned in from 'A Good Chair is a Good Chair' catalogue)

I must admit, I fell a little in love with those minimalist blocks of loveliness at one of Ikon Gallery's learning based events two years ago. From what I remember, we spent the afternoon sitting surrounded by all this furniture just sketching away, and sporadically bursting into discussion about whether or not you'd buy one yourself (are they even comfortable??) etc.

Here is an installation view taken from the catalogue A Good Chair is a Good Chair (produced by Ikon Gallery and Pinakothek der Moderne). Photography by Stuart Whipps.  As Jonathan Watkins so rightly says in the catalogue's foreword: "...[the exhibition] is the realisation of a project in which visitors can specifically view and study crossovers, differences and the interrelationships between art and design. This is a key example of what we consider to be one of the tasks of a museum in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."

For those who have ever endured 4 hours searching through that immense bright blue and yellow home furnishing store, doesn't it feel a bit flatpack-of-1979? (http://www.ikea.com/ms/en_CA/img/pdf/Billy_Anniv_en.pdf)

Philippe Starck's WW Stool: perhaps a bit impractical

Of course, I won't compare Kamprad to Judd here. Judd explains himself that each of his furniture designs are meticulously thought out to the minute detail, and every attention is put into the craftsmanship of individual part. In fact, his work is still being manufactured today, which illustrates how minimal basic furniture need not come in a flatpack box afterall...

Judd's work is the paradigm for form following function, as he states in "It's Hard to Find a Good Lamp" (1993); "If a chair or a building is not functional, if it appears to be only art, it is ridiculous..."

Well, I'm afraid I have an ÜBER massive crush on Phillpe Starck so I can't say I entirely agree with that statement but it's interesting nonetheless. I think there's always going to be a place for impractical and eclectic furniture in our world. I mean, Starck's work is as popular as ever, and it would appear that people are still fascinated with and covet the designs of Ettore Sottsass amongst numerous others.

So I guess fundamentally, Donald Judd is the antithesis to Postmodernism.

Which is pretty cool.

Labels: A good chair is a good chair, Art Design Crossover, Chair Lust of the Month, CHAIRS, CLOTM, Donald Judd, Ikon Gallery, Minimalist Furniture