Every Chair Needs a Painting

Designer Eva Eisler has prepared a project for the Kvalitář Gallery entitled “Every Chair Needs a Picture”. She is joining forces with gallery owner Marek Habr to demonstrate how strong the combination of applied and fine art can be.

The exhibition is a natural continuation of the gallery’s years of effort to combine architecture, design and painting into a compact whole. “For Kvalitář, this exhibition is another opportunity to develop collaboration with Czech artists and designers, and I’d like to make this an annual tradition,” Habr says of his vision. He established Kvalitář Gallery five years ago with the aim of carrying on the forgotten tradition of “Gesamstkunstwerk”, i.e., a trend at the beginning of the 19th century that advocated for individual branches of the arts collaborating with each other.

Eva Eisler confirms that this idea remains current: “To be surrounded by beautiful pieces of furntiure, by icons produced by 20th-century masters that have stood the test of time, and by pictures that give you a feeling of calm and dignity is like living in a community abounding in generosity and wisdom.” She has attempted to bring this ideal vision into the present in the form of interior design for art lovers. Paintings by contemporary Czech artists from the Kvalitář collection have served as her basis. These include works by the much-appreciated middle generation of abstract painters such as Milan Houser and Michal Škoda as well as representatives of the younger generation such as Jana Bernartová and Petr Dub. Eisler has augmented the art with furniture from the workshops of world-famous architects and designers – Le Courbisier, Gerrit Rietveld and Mies van der Rohe. Contemporary design is represented by the work of Eisler and her students in the Atelier K.O.V., which she leads at Pragues’s UMPRUM (Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design).

“A beautiful and perhaps even simple chair has its own character. It’s like a being that stands in the space and looks around it. When we find the appropriate picture to go with it, the dialogue between the two is pleasing. The chair invites us to sit and participate in contemplating the surroundings.”

The result is a “room” in which the visitor finds his or her personal vision of how beneficial and inspiring it is to not be afraid of having beautiful things at home that will increase in value over time. “There is no recipe for an ideal solution, you just need to find the bravery to compose your own symphony and it will constantly inspire and recharge you,” says Eisler, reminding us that people must not fear beauty.

Eva Eisler has produced an extensive body of work. She is a world-famous artist and also works in the areas of architecture, design, and fine art, focusing on curatorial and exhibition activity. She has long lecutred at New York University, the Parsons School of Design and the Rhode Island School of Design. Her works are represented in many leading collections in Europe and the United States, such as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York; the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.; the Museum(s) of Fine Arts in Boston, Houston, and Montreal; and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. She has participated in many group and solo exhibitions worldwide. At Prague’s UMPRUM she leads the Atelier K.O.V. She has been awarded a Residency at the Rockefeller Study Center in Bellagio, Italy; a Fellowship in 1993 at the New York Foundation for the Arts; and the Form 2003 award for her “mono cimetric” design from the Bundesverband Kunsthanwerk in Germany.Designer Eva Eisler has prepared a project for the Kvalitář Gallery entitled “Every Chair Needs a Picture”. She is joining forces with gallery owner Marek Habr to demonstrate how strong the combination of applied and fine art can be.