Scott Burton is best known for producing furniture-sculpture hybrids constructed of solid stone, rolled steel, brushed aluminum, or laminated wood. Burton held that art should serve the pubic, and his chairs, many of them intended for unrestricted, civic sites, are functional sculptures that can be touched, sat upon, and otherwise enjoyed by their audience. In their spare, almost impersonal elegance, the chairs express Burton’s belief that a work of art should transcend any single artist’s emotional or intellectual concerns. Likewise, these objects demonstrate Burton’s engagement with the disposition of bodies in space, since furniture accommodates and reflects the form of the human body—especially chairs, with their arms, legs, backs, and bottoms. Pair of Two-Part Chairs, Obtuse Angle is made of heavily polished granite. The ample laps, broad straight backs, and solid seats exemplify this latent anthropomorphism. The title refers to the construction of the piece, each chair being made of two parts, with the supporting part set at an obtuse angle.
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Scott Burton, Pair of Two-Part Chairs, Obtuse Angle, 1984