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S E E N Russell Megee sits in Frank Gehry’s Cross Check Chair, which is constructed with interwoven and bent ribbons of laminated white maple.
Have a Seat RUS S E LL M EG E E E X H I B ITS “A C E N T U RY O F C H A I RS” T H I S M O N T H AT TA P A RC H ITEC TU R E BY EV IE K LOPP HOL ZER PHOTOS BY DON R ISI
starts talking about modernism, you’d better pull up a chair. Frank Gehry, Charles Eames, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe – he speaks these names freely and quickly, as if common vernacular. His passion for modern architects and the chairs they have masterfully produced is as deep as his knowledge on the subject. “If I go off, I can tell – when someone’s eyes glaze over and I go, ‘Alright, I know. I’ve been talking about this chair for two hours,’” Megee said. On Oct. 7, Megee will share his personal collection of 100 chairs – most by world-renowned modern architects – in an exhibit at TAP Architecture downtown. The exhibit coincides with the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Week and will be part of the Oct. 17 architecture tour. “It’s going to be some eye candy in here,” he said. “There’s going to be 100 legit, real-deal [chairs] that you won’t see anywhere, except for in a museum.” Megee’s first chair purchase happened by chance in the ’90s. He was driving down Pennsylvania Avenue in northwest Oklahoma City when he noticed two chairs on the sidewalk of B&L Furniture. “I was like, ‘Wow. I’ve seen those,’” he said. “So, I went home and got a book – and there it was! The famous architect who did the Barcelona Pavilion. He was in the Bauhaus, and he came to the United States in 1937. [I realized] that’s the Barcelona chair!” Mies van der Rohe designed the Barcelona chair for his German Pavilion at the Barcelona Exposition of 1929. The chairs became popular in the 1950s and were often sold in pairs, Megee
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explained, because Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Illinois – his version of the glass house – featured two of them. Megee rushed back to B&L Furniture to purchase the pair. The seller wouldn’t budge on his $40 price, but Megee gladly paid it. He knew the pair’s true value was about $1,200. “Architects were building modern homes, and the homes needed to be filled with things – so there you go,” he said. “They started having competitions for modern items. They were really trying to introduce modern living and modern household products to the American public.” It turns out there is a strong connection between modern architects and the modern chairs they designed.
“It’s almost some kind of Zen-type approach,” Megee said. “Maybe it’s so simplistic that your conceptual ideas that you have for your modern approach to architecture are all simplified into one item – and there it is, conclusive, in one chair. Those greatest minds in architecture, they all did a chair. You can’t name a real famous guy who didn’t have a chair.” Megee has found chairs through eBay, auctions and thrift stores. Many times, the sellers didn’t know the treasures they possessed. But Megee? Oh, he knew. He continues to collect modern chairs today, and he’ll tell you all about it – if you have the time. Read more details about the chair exhibit at tapokc.com.
