THE NEW ORLEANS ARMCHAIR by Ron Arad Lot n° 30

THE NEW ORLEANS ARMCHAIR (1999) by RON ARAD,b. 1951 Pigmentedpolyester, gel coat and fiberglass, signed and dated on the bottom and back of the "Ron Arad London 99" armchair, countersigned on the side "Ron Arad" Inscription on the back: "You think you have a plan but all" Edition six of eighteen, uniquepieces, Ron Arad Associates 95cm (h) 135cm (w) 53cm (d) Literature: A. Cappellieri "Design & Italy Ron Arad" Editions Mondadori Arte - Milan 2008. Similar model, reproduced in colour, page 91, "Ron Arad talks to Matthew Collins", Phaidon Editions - London, 2004. Similar model reproduced in colour on page 85 Provenance: Artcurial, Paris, 'Design Minimal vs Maximal', 2nd Dec 2008 (lot 110), where acquired by the present owner. Ron Arad first constructed the Big Easy chair in 1988. “I was thinking about an overstuffed club chair.” He had just learned to weld and found that steel was quite forgiving. “I could bend it, cut it, weld it, fold it, torture the piece of metal until it made a comfortable chair.” The BIG EASY was among the first pieces of contemporary design added to NOMA’s decorative arts collection. In the late 1990s Arad released a moulded-polyester version called NEW ORLEANS where he daubs colour inside a mould before pouring in the polyester,imprinting the chair with the element of painting, the effect combining art and sculpture to create something unique. The chair is a powerful statement on volume and illusion, and like the best of Arad’s design, it fully blurs the distinction between furniture and sculpture. It is an outstanding example of how one designer can successfully rework designs through a career, turning to different materials, processes, and even attitudes to fully explore an idea. “The first of the chairs said to you ‘look I am crude, that’s who I am.’ … with experience, the welding got better, the technique got better, and if the first ones were about crudeness, the next ones were about being refined.”