![]() Chair exhibited at the
Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2010 | |
Designer | Ron Arad |
---|---|
Date | 1981 ( United Kingdom) |
Materials | Steel frame, leather car seat |
Style / tradition | Postmodernist |
Sold by | Vitra ( Switzerland) |
Height | 78 cm (31 in) |
Width | 69 cm (27 in) |
Depth | 92 cm (36 in) |
The Rover chair is the first piece of furniture designed by industrial designer Ron Arad. It was made in 1981 as a fusion of two readymades and launched Arad's career. The chair is a postmodernist design, combining a car seat with a structural tubing frame.
Arad had left his employment with a firm of architects, [1] and obtained the parts to make the chair from a scrapyard in Chalk Farm, London. [1] [2] The readymade [3] chair was the first piece of furniture he produced. [4] [5]
The red [6] [7] leather seat is from a Rover P6 [8] [9] and is housed in a black [10] painted curved steel frame made from a Kee Klamp milking stall. [1] [6] [8] Later exhibited pieces had epoxy lacquered frames. [11] The frame provides both feet and arm rests. [12]
The Rover P6 is sometimes known as the 2000. Some reports of the chair refer to it being made using seats from the 200, [2] [13] P5 [14] or 90. [15]
Furniture maker Joe Hall visited Arad's Covent Garden shop in the mid-1980s and then collaborated with him to make further chairs. Hall scoured the country's scrapyards for P6 seats, which cost £5–15 each and were in excellent condition. [8]
The chairs sold for £99 each in 1981, [2] about three times the production cost. [1] Original chairs made by Arad's One Off company [9] have been auctioned by Christie's, [16] [17] Bonhams, [18] [19] Bonhams & Butterfield [15] and Göteborgs Auktionsverk. [20] [21] Hundreds have been produced since 1981, fetching thousands of pounds at auctions at the turn of the century. [2] [8] [22] The success of the chair, which has become an icon, [23] launched Arad's career. [6] [11] [24] [25]
The chairs were produced by One Off until 1989, and in 2008 were being produced by Vitra in two models. [12] A two-seater version was auctioned in 2011. [20] [21]
Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier bought six chairs [1] [2] in 1981. They also attracted the attention of furniture manufacturer Vitra. [11] The chair is recognised as a postmodernist design. [26]
A presenter of BBC Television's Top Gear sat on such a chair from 1988. [2] The chair also featured in a television advertisement for an unrelated product. [27] Arad's own children were breast-fed on the chair. [24]
The chair has formed part of various exhibitions, including those at London's Design Museum, [13] Barbican Art Gallery, [10] Timothy Taylor Gallery, [28] Paris's Centre Pompidou [11] [29] and New York's Museum of Modern Art. [6] [25]
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![]() Chair exhibited at the
Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2010 | |
Designer | Ron Arad |
---|---|
Date | 1981 ( United Kingdom) |
Materials | Steel frame, leather car seat |
Style / tradition | Postmodernist |
Sold by | Vitra ( Switzerland) |
Height | 78 cm (31 in) |
Width | 69 cm (27 in) |
Depth | 92 cm (36 in) |
The Rover chair is the first piece of furniture designed by industrial designer Ron Arad. It was made in 1981 as a fusion of two readymades and launched Arad's career. The chair is a postmodernist design, combining a car seat with a structural tubing frame.
Arad had left his employment with a firm of architects, [1] and obtained the parts to make the chair from a scrapyard in Chalk Farm, London. [1] [2] The readymade [3] chair was the first piece of furniture he produced. [4] [5]
The red [6] [7] leather seat is from a Rover P6 [8] [9] and is housed in a black [10] painted curved steel frame made from a Kee Klamp milking stall. [1] [6] [8] Later exhibited pieces had epoxy lacquered frames. [11] The frame provides both feet and arm rests. [12]
The Rover P6 is sometimes known as the 2000. Some reports of the chair refer to it being made using seats from the 200, [2] [13] P5 [14] or 90. [15]
Furniture maker Joe Hall visited Arad's Covent Garden shop in the mid-1980s and then collaborated with him to make further chairs. Hall scoured the country's scrapyards for P6 seats, which cost £5–15 each and were in excellent condition. [8]
The chairs sold for £99 each in 1981, [2] about three times the production cost. [1] Original chairs made by Arad's One Off company [9] have been auctioned by Christie's, [16] [17] Bonhams, [18] [19] Bonhams & Butterfield [15] and Göteborgs Auktionsverk. [20] [21] Hundreds have been produced since 1981, fetching thousands of pounds at auctions at the turn of the century. [2] [8] [22] The success of the chair, which has become an icon, [23] launched Arad's career. [6] [11] [24] [25]
The chairs were produced by One Off until 1989, and in 2008 were being produced by Vitra in two models. [12] A two-seater version was auctioned in 2011. [20] [21]
Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier bought six chairs [1] [2] in 1981. They also attracted the attention of furniture manufacturer Vitra. [11] The chair is recognised as a postmodernist design. [26]
A presenter of BBC Television's Top Gear sat on such a chair from 1988. [2] The chair also featured in a television advertisement for an unrelated product. [27] Arad's own children were breast-fed on the chair. [24]
The chair has formed part of various exhibitions, including those at London's Design Museum, [13] Barbican Art Gallery, [10] Timothy Taylor Gallery, [28] Paris's Centre Pompidou [11] [29] and New York's Museum of Modern Art. [6] [25]
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