When the curator Clarisse Colliard asked the Swiss collector Thierry Barbier-Muller, “Do you even know how many chairs you have?,” he couldn’t answer. He had never counted his chairs because he hadn’t set out to build a collection. She told him the number was over 300. Barbier-Muller began collecting in his 20s. He purchased the Georg Baselitz painting Eagle (1978), negotiating a payment plan with the Swiss art dealer Ernst Beyeler—then bought a second Baselitz from Beyeler before he’d finished paying for the first. The chair collection started in the 1990s. Outlandish designs by artists such as Ron Arad, Tom Dixon, and André Dubreil kicked things off; later came chairs by Mary Heilmann, Maria Pergay, and Richard Tuttle. In this exhibition, curated by Robert Wilson, 150 of Barbier-Muller’s 650 chairs are on view. —Elena Clavarino
The Arts Intel Report
A Chair and You
Chairs from Thierry Barbier-Mueller’s collection, including, clockwise from left, the Thing 10, in solid birch wood, designed by Richard Hutten; the Bessie Smith, in metal, by Robert Wilson; and the Klassenraumstuhl, in black- and red-lacquered wood, by Stefan Wewerka.
