See more objects with the tag interior, decoration, home, symmetry, seating, curved, lattice, interwoven, playful.

See more objects with the color burlywood dimgrey rosybrown darkgrey or see all the colors for this object.

Object Timeline

1994

  • Work on this object began.

2006

  • We acquired this object.

2007

2015

2024

  • You found it!

Cross Check Chair

This is a chair. It was designed by Frank O. Gehry and manufactured by Knoll International. It is dated June 24, 1994 and we acquired it in 2006. Its medium is laminated white maple. It is a part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.

Inspired by the apple crates he had played on as a child, Frank Gehry created the ribbon-like design of the Cross Check chair with thin interwoven maple strips. The chair is part of the Gehry Collection for Knoll International; chairs from 1992–94, of which this is an example, were made with a white maple from a reservation which was specially chosen as environmentally sustainable.
While the museum does have two of Gehry’s corrugated cardboard chairs, the Cross Check chair represents a different line of thinking and would bring up-to-date the museum’s series of bentwood laminated furniture, which includes examples by Thonet, John Henry Belter, and Alvar Aalto. This chair would be a very appropriate and welcome addition to the museum’s seating collection, both as an example of the use of bentwood and as an example of the creative process of a leading architect who references the historical continuum.

It is credited Gift of Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz.

  • Vermelha Chair
  • bent epoxy-coated steel, hand woven dyed cotton rope, aluminum.
  • Gift of Edra SpA, Italy.
  • 2007-39-1
  • Long Chair Chair
  • birch (frame), birch-faced plywood (seat).
  • Museum purchase through gift of George R. Kravis II, Anonymous Donor, and....
  • 2013-17-1

Our curators have highlighted 1 object that are related to this one.

Its dimensions are

H x W x D: 87 x 69 x 60 cm (34 1/4 x 27 3/16 x 23 5/8 in.)

It has the following markings

On underside of seat: "Knoll/Frank Gehry" (signature); "made 6/24/94"

Cite this object as

Cross Check Chair; Designed by Frank O. Gehry (American, b. Canada, 1929); Manufactured by Knoll Textiles (United States); USA; laminated white maple; H x W x D: 87 x 69 x 60 cm (34 1/4 x 27 3/16 x 23 5/8 in.); Gift of Joel and Anne Ehrenkranz; 2006-24-2

There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian’s Terms of Use page.

For higher resolution or commercial use contact ArtResource.

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18706397/ |title=Cross Check Chair |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=18 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>