Rover chair

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Chair designed by Ron Arad

title: "Rover chair" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["chairs", "postmodern-art", "individual-chairs"] description: "Chair designed by Ron Arad" topic_path: "general/chairs" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rover_chair" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Chair designed by Ron Arad ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox furniture"]

FieldValue
nameRover chair
imageRover Chair leather at Barbican London 2010 Ron Arad.jpg
captionChair exhibited at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2010
designerRon Arad
date1981 (United Kingdom)
materialsSteel frame, leather car seat
stylePostmodernist
sold_byVitra (Switzerland)
height78 cm
width69 cm
depth92 cm
::

| name = Rover chair | image = Rover Chair leather at Barbican London 2010 Ron Arad.jpg | caption = Chair exhibited at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2010 | designer = Ron Arad | date = 1981 (United Kingdom) | materials = Steel frame, leather car seat | style = Postmodernist | sold_by = Vitra (Switzerland) | height = 78 cm | width = 69 cm | depth = 92 cm The Rover chair is the first piece of furniture designed by industrial designer Ron Arad. It was made in 1981 as a fusion of two readymades and launched Arad's career. The chair is a postmodernist design, combining a car seat with a structural tubing frame.

History

Arad had left his employment with a firm of architects, and obtained the parts to make the chair from a scrapyard in Chalk Farm, London. The readymade chair was the first piece of furniture he produced.

The red leather seat is from a Rover P6 and is housed in a black painted curved steel frame made from a Kee Klamp milking stall. Later exhibited pieces had epoxy lacquered frames. The frame provides both feet and arm rests.

The Rover P6 is sometimes known as the 2000. Some reports of the chair refer to it being made using seats from the 200, P5 or 90.

Furniture maker Joe Hall visited Arad's Covent Garden shop in the mid-1980s and then collaborated with him to make further chairs. Hall scoured the country's scrapyards for P6 seats, which cost £515 each and were in excellent condition.

The chairs sold for £99 each in 1981, about three times the production cost. Original chairs made by Arad's One Off company have been auctioned by Christie's, Bonhams, Bonhams & Butterfield and Göteborgs Auktionsverk. Hundreds have been produced since 1981, fetching thousands of pounds at auctions at the turn of the century. The success of the chair, which has become an icon, launched Arad's career. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/Ron_arad,_canapé_the_rover_2-seater,_1985.JPG" caption="Rover two-seater (1985)"] ::

The chairs were produced by One Off until 1989, and in 2008 were being produced by Vitra in two models. A two-seater version was auctioned in 2011.

Reception

Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier bought six chairs in 1981. They also attracted the attention of furniture manufacturer Vitra.

A presenter of BBC Television's Top Gear sat on such a chair from 1988. The chair also featured in a television advertisement for an unrelated product. Arad's own children were breast-fed on the chair.

Exhibitions

The chair has formed part of various exhibitions, including those at London's Design Museum, Barbican Art Gallery, Timothy Taylor Gallery, Paris's Centre Pompidou and New York's Museum of Modern Art.

References

References

  1. Fountain, John. "'Rover Chair' by Ron Arad". Creativepool Blog.
  2. Gleadell, Colin. (30 March 2009). "Ron Arad: the designer who redrew the borders". [[The Daily Telegraph]].
  3. Manson, Neil. (25 May 2005). "Chairmaster". [[artnet]].
  4. Cohen, Tobi. "Design of the times". [[British Midland International]].
  5. Burnett, Kate. (11 March 2010}}{{dead link). "Ron Arad". idfx.
  6. Ciuraru, Carmela. (17 August 2009). "Ron Arad: No Discipline at MoMA". California Literary Review.
  7. Treggiden, Katie. "out and about :: ron arad restless". confessionsofadesigngeek.
  8. Baxter, Andrew. (19 May 2001). "Any old iron". [[The Daily telegraph]].
  9. Browne, Alix. (19 August 2009). "Radical Chic". [[T: The New York Times Style Magazine]].
  10. Heathcote, Edwin. (27 February 2010). "Ron Arad at Barbican Art Gallery". [[Financial Times]].
  11. "Ron Arad: www.c No Discipline". [[Centre Pompidou]].
  12. (December 2008). "Ron Arad – the art of design". [[Artprice.com]].
  13. "Ron Arad: 25/25 – Celebrating 25 Years of Design". [[Design Museum]].
  14. "Rover P5 Saloon MkIII". Brightwells.
  15. Soetriyono, Eddy. (18 January 2008). "Ron Arad's Avant-garde Furniture Movement". C-Arts.
  16. (25 May 1994). "SALE 6533 LOT 127". [[Christie's]].
  17. (16 May 2001). "SALE 9098 LOT 322". [[Christie's]].
  18. (13 April 2011). "Ron Arad for One Off Ltd, a 'Rover' chair, designed 1981". [[Bonhams]].
  19. (29 March 2012). "Ron Arad for One Off Ltd". [[Bonhams]].
  20. (21 November 2011). "Göteborgs Auktionsverk, Dags för kvalitetsauktion i Göteborg". hittaauktion.com.
  21. (16 November 2011). "Göteborgs Auktionsverk – Kvalitetsauktion 28 november 2011. Auktionsnummer 37 – Ron Arad". mynewsdesk.com.
  22. Banks, Tom. (8 September 2008). "Street art bonanza at Phillips de Pury auction". [[Design Week]].
  23. Villinger, Carina. "Ron Arad – Before and After". designinfo.
  24. Seno, Alexandra A.. (22 January 2010). "The Future of Industrial Design". [[The Wall Street Journal]].
  25. "Biography". [[Museum of Modern Art]].
  26. Julius, Corinne. (19 September 2011). "Postmodernism: the -ism with attitude". Homes & Property.
  27. Aldersey-Williams, Hugh. (19 June 2000). "Professor of cool". [[New Statesman]].
  28. "Ron Arad". [[Timothy Taylor Gallery]].
  29. Piettre, Céline. "Ron Arad {{!}} Critique – No Discipline – Paris 4e. Centre Pompidou". parisART.

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