THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408040035
SECTION: HOME PAGE: G1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 36 lines
FURNITURE designers, in a spunky mood after World War II, began to put seeing above sitting.
Gradually, function gave way to an art-for-art's-sake approach. That trend is traced in 22 chairs, tables and sofas on display at The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond.
The designs ``changed dramatically due to various social, technological and aesthetic concerns,'' said Frederick R. Brandt, the show's organizer.
Verner Panton's 1959 cone chair may rise from an improbably tiny base, but it still resembles a seat. By the 1990s, however, Gaetano Pesce's ``January 16th'' sofa suggests stacks of sandbags, and comments provocatively on the first air attacks on Iraq in 1991. MEMO: ``Design: Post-War Furniture from the Collection of The Virginia
Museum of Fine Arts'' continues through Sept. 25. The museum, at 2800
Grove Ave. in Richmond, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through
Sundays, and from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays. Free. 1-367-0844. ILLUSTRATION: COLOR PHOTO COURTESY OF VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
Color photo
Two pieces on display in Richmond: Gaetano Pesce's ``January 16th''
sofa (above), and a 1959 cone chair by Verner Panton (left).
by CNB