Charles Randolph Pollock (June 20, 1930 – August 20, 2013) was an

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

er who created sleek furniture, most notably an office chair held together by a single

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

band that became known as a Pollock Chair. This iconic chair, introduced in 1963 and still in production, became a staple of executive offices in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the 1960s and can be seen, appropriately, in the period television show, ''

Mad Men ''Mad Men'' is an American period drama television series created by Matthew Weiner and produced by Lionsgate Television. It ran on the cable network AMC from July 19, 2007, to May 17, 2015, lasting for seven seasons and 92 episodes. Its fict ...

'', as well as institutions such as the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

and the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

Education and early career

Pollock studied at Brooklyn's

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York (state), New York. It has a satellite campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The school was ...

, and after serving in the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

, he was hired by George Nelson. They designed and sold "swag leg" chairs, characterized by curved legs. These were commercially successful.

Later career

Pollock's first chair for Knoll was the Model 657 armchair. It featured a one-piece leather sling seat and back with thin seat cushion, supported by chrome steel tubes and aluminum frame members. Knoll introduced the chair in 1964. While the Model 657 chair was in production development, Pollock was working on a revolutionary executive office chair design for Knoll. The chair had an oval cross-section extruded aluminum frame that served as a structural support. This frame was polished and chrome plated. Slots in the frame held the black

polypropylene Polypropylene (PP), also known as polypropene, is a thermoplastic polymer used in a wide variety of applications. It is produced via chain-growth polymerization from the monomer propylene. Polypropylene belongs to the group of polyolefins and ...

shell along with the upholstery retaining rib. Various fabrics or leathers could be chosen for upholstery. Seating comfort was achieved using multi-density urethane foam. The chair could be ordered with or without black phenolic arms. The Pollock Executive Chair has remained in continuous production since it was introduced by Knoll in 1965. After the production of the Pollock Chair for Knoll, Pollock designed the Penelope Chair for Castelli (1982). After this period, Pollock did not see success with new designs until Jerry Helling, head of

Bernhardt Design Bernhardt Design (a division of the Bernhardt Furniture Company) is an American modern furniture company based in Lenoir, North Carolina. The company is known for working with a wide variety of international designers, and for their investment i ...

, tracked him down and asked him to design furniture for his firm. Pollock then designed the CP lounge chair, a contoured chair which won critical praise.

Death

Pollock died in a house fire in

Queens, New York Queens is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located on Long Island, it is the largest New York City borough by area. It is bordered by the borough of Brooklyn at the western tip of Long I ...

on August 20, 2013 at the age of 83. At the time of his death he was still at work on designs for new chairs.

References

External links

Remembering Charles Pollock
(on Knoll site)
Pollock Executive Chair
(on Knoll site)
Pollock Arm Chair
(on Knoll site) {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollock, Charles American furniture designers American industrial designers 1930 births 2013 deaths Deaths from fire in the United States