Frank Gehry
Designed by Canadian-American Pritzker Prize-winning architect Frank Gehry, “Grandpa Beaver” Armchair is created out of a single medium — corrugated cardboard. Known for his monumental, sculptural buildings, Gehry began experimenting in corrugated cardboard in 1969 with his “Easy Edges” series, most famously in his “Wiggle” side chair, a pivotal design in modern furniture history. Gehry stated, “I discovered that by alternating the direction of layers of corrugations, the finished board had enough strength to support a small car, and a uniform, velvety texture on all four sides. I found I could cut these edgeboard sections into geometrical forms, or bend them into sculptural, ribbon-candy folds.” [1]
Gehry returned to this subject in 1979 with his “Experimental Edges” series, in which the “Grandpa Beaver” armchair derives. In this series, Gehry focused on the materiality of the cardboard, exposing the raw edges and integrating them into the design of the chair. The titles from this series also suggest a more playful theme: “Grandpa Beaver'' conjures up something from a fable or fairy tale, creating a sense of comfort and familiarity. In the 1990s, the architect integrated the chair into the interior design of the Chiat/Day Building in Venice, California, famous for its giant binoculars, which Gehry designed in 1991 in collaboration with Coosje van Bruggen and Claes Oldenburg, whose work can also be found in this show.
[1] F. Gehry, quoted in M. Hoffmann, “Liberated Design” in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, April 19, 1972