Chairs, Chair Design and Chair Designers
Born in Tel Aviv in 1951, educated at the Jerusalem Academy of Art and later at the Architectural Association in London, Ron Arad co-founded with Caroline Thorman the design and production studio One Off in 1981 and later, in 1989, Ron Arad Associates architecture and design practice. In 2008 Ron Arad Architects was established alongside Ron Arad Associates.
From 1994 to 1999 he established the Ron Arad Studio, design and production unit in Como, Italy. He was Professor of Design Product at the Royal College of Art in London up until 2009. he was awarded the 2011 London Design Week Medal for design excellence and was became a Royal Academician of the Royal Academy of Arts in 2013.
His constant experimentation with the possibilities of materials such as steel, aluminum or polyamide and his radical re-conception of the form and structure of furniture has put him at the forefront of contemporary design and architecture.
Alongside his limited edition studio work, Arad designs for many leading international companies including Kartell, Vitra, Moroso, Fiam, Driade, Alessi, Cappellini, Cassina, WMF and Magis among many others.
Ron Arad has designed a number of Public Art pieces, most recently the Vortext in Seoul, Korea, and the Kesher Sculpture at Tel Aviv University.
Source: Biography
Chair Candy will be the name of the little series of photo’s I will showcase here. I took them at The Paris Centre Pompidou in February, 2009, when there was a Ron Arad overview Exhibition. This is one of my faves: The Stair Chair (at least that is what I coined it). Oficially named the London Papardelle.
Afterthought Chair by Ron Arad at Christie’s
Estimate 180,000 – 250,000 ($244,942 – $340,197)
Sale Information
Sale 5565
arts decoratifs du xxeme siecle et design
28 May 2009, Paris
Notes:Artist”s Resale Right (“droit de Suite”). If the Artist”s Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer also agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist”s collection agent.
Afterthought was designed for the Belgian Dutch Gallery Mourmans
After sale remarks:
‘Afterthought’ is one of the last pieces designed by Ron Arad in 2007. It is inspired from the preceding model, ‘Southern Hemisphere’, demonstrating the artist’s exploration into the boundaries between furniture and sculpture. The model was executed in three examples, each slightly different in matter or design and hence each unique: the second in patinated steel and bronze, the third in polished steel with red interior‘Afterthought’ is executed in four examples, each slightly different, thus unique, and not in three examples as indicated in the catalogue. The bibliographical reference pertains to one of the three other examples than the one offered here
Dimensions are : Height : 67 3/4 in. ; Width : 62 5/8 in. ; Depth : 65 3/8 in.
At Christie’s
It fetched a whoppy Euro 205,000 ($283,887) including buyers premium
Upcoming in the Timothy Tailor Gallery in London: Ron Arad’s Thumbprint Chair
Thumbprint 2008, Bronze
74 1/8 x 62 5/8 x 55 7/8 in. /152 x 159 x 142 cm
Edition 1 of 6
For the non European readers: Puch is an Austrian manufacturer of all sorts of movable things as cars, tanks, motorbikes and mopeds. In my youth in The Hague you didn’t belong if you didn’t drive a
“Puch Moped”
Actually this
photo from Brom Brom
is better (if you click the enlarged version you will see a Stork on the T-shirt which means it is probably a T-shirt issued by the The Hague Puch club chapter….)
RON ARAD
Puch stool, ca. 1981
Chrome-plated tubular steel, moped seat. 32 1/2 in. (82.6 cm.) high Manufactured by One Off Ltd., UK. Back of seat printed with PUCH.
ESTIMATE $8,000-10,000LITERATURE Yukio Futagawa, Sticks and Stones. One Offs & Short Runs. Ron Arad 1980-1990, exh. cat., Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 1990, pp. 38-39; Deyan Sudjic, Ron Arad, London, 1999, pp. 20 and 100-101
Rover two-seater sofa and Rover lounge chair by Ron Arad, 1981
Painted tubular steel, Rover car seats. Sofa: 31 1/2 x 48 x 36 in. (80 x 121.9 x 91.4 cm.); chair: 30 in. (76.2 cm.) high Manufactured by One Off Ltd., UK. Underside of each with decal “ONE/Off/LONDON/ 01 379 7796†(2).
ESTIMATE $15,000-20,000LITERATURE Deyan Sudjic, Ron Arad: Restless Furniture, New York, 1989, pp. 30 and 82 for the sofa; Charlotte and Peter Fiell, Modern Chairs, Cologne, 1993, p. 116; Charlotte and Peter Fiell, 1000 Chairs, Cologne, 1997, p. 562 for the chair; Deyan Sudjic, Ron Arad, London, 1999, p. 10 for the chair