multi-purpose chairs...

images from a 1943 article in architectural forum about the "recent" designs of frederick kiesler for peggy guggenheim's art of this century gallery. kiesler was a wonderfully inventive architect whose projects such as the conceptual endless house; and his only built structure, the shrine of the book at the israel museum, are clearly the work of a visionary.

his ideas regarding the display of artworks were somewhat nuts and definitely over the top (and probably pissed off a number of artists); but the idea of sacrificing the integrity of the single object towards an interactive spatial installation in many ways pre-figures the thinking behind much installation art from the 70's by at least 30 years.

the drawings above are for "the multi-purpose chair"; which was not only a beautiful organic form, but part of a larger project where single objects/structures could have multiple uses. the drawings, which suggest numerous uses, are certainly reminiscent of corb's modular drawings...