Art Peritus Selects

Meier, Richard (American, b.1934)

The Meier Collection of furniture was originally inspired by a chair that architect Richard Meier designed in the 1970s for a small reading room at the Guggenheim Museum in New York that echoed the curves and lines of Frank Loyd Wright’s spectacular rotunda. In the 1980s, Meier approached Knoll with the chair design for manufacturing, from which a whole line of other furniture was created, including the present dining table, armchairs, side chairs, chaise lounge, as well as coffee and side tables. Launched in 1982, the Meier Collection was celebrated for its modernist spirit, while concurrently looking back to traditional woodworking methods of American craftsmen in his use of solid maple forms left either in a natural state, or, as in the present example, in meticulous black lacquer finish.

Originally from New Jersey, Meier studied architecture at Cornell University and later worked in New York for Marcel Breuer before launching his own firm in 1963. Like many designers of the 1970s and 1980s, Meier’s work harkens back to early 20th century Modernist designers such as Josef Hoffmann, Le Corbusier and Mies Van der Rohe. Among Meier’s many lifetime achievements in design and architecture, he is best known for designing the Getty Center, Los Angeles and Paley Center for Media, in Beverly Hills, California; the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, Spain; and the Hague City Hall, the Netherlands.