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'Nothing Continues to Happen' thumbnail 2
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'Nothing Continues to Happen'

Chair
1980 (designed), 1980 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

The Chair 'Nothing Continues to Happen' by Howard Meister is a celebrated example of high-end 'new wave' or Postmodern furniture. This example is the first piece of a limited edition of three, all produced in the early 1980s.
Meister is a fifth generation furniture maker who worked in his family's furniture manufacturing business at the beginning of his career. Without any formal design training he set about sketching designs for chairs in the early 1980s and became interested in the thought that a chair can express several ideas simultaneously and represent both personal and wider cultural experiences. He attempted to infuse poetry into the functional object, an intention reflected in the often ambiguous and literary titles of his works. The chair 'Nothing Continues to Happen' was widely published and was included as part of an interior in the 1987 film ‘Wall Street’.


Object details

Category
Object type
Title'Nothing Continues to Happen' (assigned by artist)
Materials and techniques
Carved and painted birch plywood; sketches in felt-tip marker
Brief description
Chair, painted and carved plywood, 'Nothing Continues to Happen', by Howard Meister, together with two preparatory sketches, designed USA, 1980.
Physical description
Baltic birch plywood chair; its edge on the right side including the top of the back (seat and legs) is unsymmetrically carved, while the edge on the left side is smooth-carved; there is a low, slightly curved cutting on the left side into the back; the chair is sprayed in a olive, greyish colour.
Dimensions
  • Height: 94.1cm
  • Circa (because of the edge) width: 41.2cm
  • Depth: 44.6cm
  • Weight: 80lb (circa)
measured from object on arrival (JS, 5.11.2010)
Style
Production typeLimited edition
Copy number
1 of 3
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'A/P' (Signed by Howard Meister (designer) and Arthur Robins (fabricator), numbered (A/P), and dated (1980) under the seat)
  • '1980' (Numbered and dated under the seat)
Object history
The 'Nothing Continues to Happen' chair's title is a fragment from a short story. Meister recalls that he recognised it was speaking about the inevitable disintegration of even the most stable elements. At the same time it was also a personal metaphor for himself, the disintegration of a romantic liaison. He uses the chair form as a symbol for the material world generally and as a stand-in for human beings (and for himself in many instances).
The chair was made in Baltic birch ply, cut first with a table saw, then a scroll saw. The back piece was then chiselled to get the texture. He made the chair together with a carpenter, Arthur Robins who was an artist himself. The intention was that viewers of the chair would not be able to identify the material and how it was caused to erode. Hence, Baltic Birch ply was used as it does not break up along grain lines when chiselled which otherwise reveals the material when painted. Meister also drew a line for the shape of the eroded edge directly onto the plywood as the line to be cut. The chair was finally painted first with white titanium primer which was then sanded to get rid of the grain. A number of layers of alkyd paint followed with the intention to achieve an uneven gray, good enough to work as finish but not achieving a finish to be admired.
The interest in the theme of destruction arose from Meister's training in classics when he read texts from pre-Socratics to Samuel Becketts where the theme recurs. He wanted to use the chair analogue to the human body, as a kind of portrait. Meister knew very few other (postmodern) furniture designers and wasn't interested in exploring. He know some Italians as they were show in his New York gallery 'Art et Industrie' and had also seen James Wines's work for Best.
The form of the chair is intentionally simple and reductive, obviously recognisable as a chair.

The chair was the first edition of three and the only one available for purchase (one is owned privately and one is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York). According to Howard Meister this is the finest example and the one in all the photographs from the early 1980s. 'Nothing Continues to Happen' was often published and exhibited in the 1980s. It also appeared in the 1987 film 'Wall Street'.

Howard Meister's background was neither in woodworking nor designing and making. Meister's family, however, owned a furniture company, Lewittes furniture (founded by Meister's great-grandfather) producing low-end, mass produced furniture sold at retailers like Hoffmann Koos and Levitz. They had two factories in North Carolina and executive offices in New York. Meister worked there early in his career at the costumer services desk. Meister had no training at an art school and started to make furniture but without support of his family. He became a member of the Soho Gallery, Art et Industrie where he had his first three solo shows. All were well received and well covered by the press but without commercial success.

Historical significance: The chair represents high-end, 'new wave' or Postmodern furniture.

(Details based on an interview with Howard Meister, conducted by Glenn Adamson and Christopher Wilk at Magen Gallery, New York City, 15 January 2010)
Historical context
Meister became interested in the thought that a chair can express several realms simultaneously (representative of his personal heritage, symbol of the material world, metaphor for the human body). Influenced by the work of Ettore Sottsass, he chose a more experimental path in design. Without any formal design training he set about sketching designs for chairs in the early 1980s. He attempted to infuse poetry into the functional object. Meisters' furnitures have often ambiguous and literary title. It is a response to the idea that furniture could express both personal and wider cultural experiences.
Production
Attribution note: The chair is the first of an edition of three, each signed and dated.
Association
Summary
The Chair 'Nothing Continues to Happen' by Howard Meister is a celebrated example of high-end 'new wave' or Postmodern furniture. This example is the first piece of a limited edition of three, all produced in the early 1980s.
Meister is a fifth generation furniture maker who worked in his family's furniture manufacturing business at the beginning of his career. Without any formal design training he set about sketching designs for chairs in the early 1980s and became interested in the thought that a chair can express several ideas simultaneously and represent both personal and wider cultural experiences. He attempted to infuse poetry into the functional object, an intention reflected in the often ambiguous and literary titles of his works. The chair 'Nothing Continues to Happen' was widely published and was included as part of an interior in the 1987 film ‘Wall Street’.
Collection
Accession number
W.6-2010

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Record createdNovember 8, 2010
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