50 Years of Chair Design

50 Years of Chair Design, a superlative new show at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (MKG), Hamburg, offers a comprehensive look at the evolution of the chair over five of the most eventful decades in the history of design. Beginning with the introduction of new methods and materials and their effect on chair design in the 1960s, the exhibition charts how the chair has been re-invented up to the present day, when a chair can be an instrument in political protest or - practically divorced from its primary use - a sculptural object in its own right.

The exhibition features over 100 chairs, chaise longues and stools, taken from the heart of the museum's collection, and includes a host of design classics, from Günter Fedinand Ris' Sunball lounge chair to Louise Campbell's Veryround - 240 steel circles interlinked to form an ornamental seat sculpture. 

Iconic works by the likes of Ron Arad, Frank Gehry, Tom Dixon, the Campana brothers, Donald Judd and Dieter Rams illustrate why the chair has come to be regarded as the business card of any designer - as well as the embodiment of their age.