FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sarah R. Smith
336.758.5524
smithsr@reynoldahouse.org
@SarahatReynolda
Reynolda House Fall Exhibition ‘The Art of Seating’
to Highlight 200 Years of American Chair Design
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (July 23, 2014) – Reynolda House Museum of American Art will
host “The Art of Seating: 200 Years of American Design” Aug. 23-Dec. 31, 2014. The traveling
exhibition features 43 chairs representing two centuries of American history, design and
craftsmanship. Reynolda House is the exhibition’s only venue with its own decorative arts
collection on view in its original setting.
“The Art of Seating” presents iconic and historic chairs dating from the early 1800s to today’s
studio furniture movement. The exhibition provides an opportunity for visitors to see readily
recognizable pieces from the Arts and Crafts movement and the mid-century Modern period
alongside rare and exceptionally well-preserved antiques.
Members of the museum are invited to an invitation-only preview of the exhibition on Thursday,
Aug. 21, that will include a brief talk by Diane DeMell Jacobsen, from whose private collection
the exhibition is curated. The exhibition opens to the public at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 23.
Several after-hours events will be offered during the exhibition, which are listed below and are
available at reynoldahouse.org.
Curated by Ben Thompson, curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, “The Art
of Seating” takes the viewer into the design studio, sharing stories behind the designs, patent
drawings and artist renderings. Selections from the Jacobsen Collection of American Art offer a
stylistic journey in furniture with showstoppers by John Henry Belter, George Hunzinger, the
Herter Brothers, the Stickley Brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles and Ray Eames, Eero
Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi, Frank Gehry and others waiting to be discovered. The exhibition also
features both contemporary and historic designs by some of the leading furniture manufacturers
such as Knoll, Herman Miller and Steelcase.
Perhaps the most illustrious object in this exhibition is the House of Representatives Chamber
Armchair from 1857. Designed by Thomas U. Walter, Architect of the U.S. Capitol from 1851 to
1865, the House of Representatives chairs were created to be used by legislators in the House
chamber and were showcased in portraits of political leaders such as Presidents Abraham
Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. A later chair in the exhibition by David Wolcott Kendall, deemed
by his peers as “The Dean of American Furniture Design,” was presented to William McKinley
during his term in the White House and has become known as the “McKinley” armchair.
The exhibition’s time at Reynolda House will be complemented by the museum’s own
decorative arts collection on view in the historic house and recently made available on the
museum’s website reynoldahouse.org. In furnishing her 30,000 square-foot house, Katharine
Reynolds, wife of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds, worked with architect Charles Barton Keen
and interior designer Earle Ash Belmont of Wanamaker’s Department Store in Philadelphia.
Most of the museum’s furnishings are original to 1917.
The museum plans to offer programs and online content that will make connections between the
chairs featured in “The Art of Seating” and those on view throughout the historic house. Search
#artofseating on social media for updates throughout the season.
Program Highlights:
 Gallery Talks – Sept. 18 and Nov. 13, noon; free with museum admission.
 Lecture – Sept. 18, 5:30 p.m.; $5.
Black Mountain and Beyond: The Modernist Movement in North Carolina, 1930–1970
by Kenneth Zogry, Ph.D., author of histories of Vermont furniture and the Carolina Inn.
Zogry will address the vibrant and influential modernist developments in art, architecture,
and design that flourished in North Carolina during the mid-20th century. Fostered by
institutions like Black Mountain College, the movement reflected the dynamic tension in
the state’s society and culture as it emerged to become a leader of the so-called “New
South.”
 Reynolda Thursdays – Oct. 2 and Nov. 6, 4:30-8 p.m.; $5.
Casual evenings with music, refreshments and interesting programs that begin at 6 p.m.
Oct. 2: See, Touch, Sit. Experience some of the greatest chair designs of the last century,
courtesy of the Teaching Chair Collection of the Sutton Initiative for Design Education at
Salem College.
Nov. 6: Midcentury Modern. A 30-minute performance by students from the UNCSA
School of Dance incorporating chairs in the choreography followed by a panel discussion
with three designers who worked with Charles and Ray Eames in the heyday of midcentury modernism.
 Lecture & Demonstration – Oct. 19, 3 p.m.; free with museum admission
Traditional Tools and Methods for Making Rustic Windsor Chairs by Drew Langsner,
author and maker of traditional chairs. Langsner will speak about and demonstrate the
techniques employed in crafting select chairs in the exhibition, including a bent willow
armchair and a comb-back Windsor armchair.
 Object of the Month Talk – Nov. 5, 2:30 p.m.; free with museum admission.
Learn about the Jacobean-Revival Walnut Armchair in the museum’s decorative arts
collection.
 Designer Talk – Nov. 20, 5:30 p.m.; $5
Innovative designer Vivian Beer, whose Current is included in The Art of Seating, will
talk about her chairs, handmade steel works that function as both sculpture and seating.
Her work is in the collection of such museums as the Renwick Gallery of the
Smithsonian American Art Museum. This event coincides with the annual Piedmont
Craftsmen’s Fair and its 50th anniversary celebration. Reynolda House is grateful for the
generous support of this event from Joseph P. Logan in honor of the Sawtooth School for
Visual Art.
The exhibition also has inspired a number of collaborative exhibits and programs throughout the
Piedmont Triad, including collaborations with High Point University, the Center for Design
Innovation, the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts, and the High Point Furniture Market
Authority. More information on related programs and events will be publicized on the museum’s
website in the coming weeks.
“The Art of Seating” is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville in
collaboration with the Thomas H. and Diane DeMell Jacobsen Ph.D. Foundation and is toured by
International Arts & Artists, Washington, D.C.
Reynolda House is grateful for the generous support of “The Art of Seating” from Major
Sponsor The David R. Hayworth Foundation; Contributing Sponsors Leonard Ryden Burr Real
Estate and Telos Furniture/Michael and Elizabeth Felsen; and Exhibition Sponsors Senator and
Mrs. James T. Broyhill, and Martha and Charles Sutton.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, a private non-profit visual arts educational
institution and cultural resource of the University of North Florida, serves the community and its
visitors through exhibitions, collections, educational programs and publications designed to
enhance an understanding and appreciation of modern and contemporary art with particular
emphasis on works created from 1960 to the present.
The American Chair Collection started as a way to provide further context to the Thomas H.
and Diane D. Jacobsen Collection of American Art—paintings, sculpture, silver and furniture
which were acquired during the early 1990s. The creation of the chair collection began with the
purchase of an Egyptian Revival Side Chair and has since blossomed to the more than 40 works
on display in this exhibition.
International Arts & Artists in Washington, DC, is a non-profit arts service organization
dedicated to increasing cross-cultural understanding and exposure to the arts internationally,
through exhibitions, programs and services to artists, arts institutions and the public. Visit
www.artsandartists.org
Reynolda House Museum of American Art is one of the nation’s premier American art
museums, with masterpieces by Mary Cassatt, Frederic Church, Jacob Lawrence, Georgia
O’Keeffe and Gilbert Stuart among its collection. Affiliated with Wake Forest University,
Reynolda House features changing exhibitions, concerts, lectures, classes, film screenings and
other events. The museum is located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in the historic 1917
estate of Katharine Smith Reynolds and her husband, Richard Joshua Reynolds, founder of the
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. Reynolda House and adjacent Reynolda Gardens and
Reynolda Village feature a spectacular public garden, dining, shopping and walking trails. For
more information, please visit reynoldahouse.org or call 336.758.5150. Connect at
facebook.com/rhmaa and @CurateReynolda.
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