Edgar Bartolucci (American, 1918–2014)
John J. Waldheim (American)
Barwa Chair
INV-2390
Edgar Bartolucci (American, 1918–2014)
John J. Waldheim (American)c. 1950
modern movement20th Centurychairfurniture
Date
c. 1950
Medium
Aluminum and canvas
Dimensions
104 × 129.5 × 51 cm (41 × 51 × 20 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Stanley Tigerman and Margaret McCurry
This lightweight chaise features a novel, angled tubular aluminum frame that enables the user to move from a seated to a reclining position with just a slight shift of body weight. First produced in 1947 by Bartolucci and Waldheim, graduates of the Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design, the chair quickly became associated with a new ideal of postwar leisure in the United States. This innovative design is a low-cost adaption of modernist experimentation with the lounge chair for a new suburban context.
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