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Bench
1986
Object Place: Westport, Massachusetts
Medium/Technique
Pearwood, soft curly maple, Velluto Pelle leather
Dimensions
57.78 x 146.05 x 56.51 cm (22 3/4 x 57 1/2 x 22 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Anne and Ronald Abramson
Accession Number1987.40
CollectionsContemporary Art, Americas
ClassificationsFurniture – Seating and beds
Rosanne Somerson is a pioneer in many ways. She is a masterful furniture maker whose works embody the expressive postmodern style of studio furniture makers of the 1980s. She has also succeeded as a woman working in a male-dominated field. Refused entry to a woodworking class as a middle schooler because of her gender, Somerson went on to become president of the esteemed Rhode Island School of Design (2015-21) and has mentored generations of students in craft and design, especially women working in wood.
DescriptionPale blue-gray leather upholstery on seat; raised abstract shapes (bleached, applied plaques) around seat frame.
Marks
Signed on the interior face of front rail: "Assisted / by D.E.K. / 8 RS [intertwined with the S surmounting the R] 6 / FOR MFA / Thanks to R.A. + A.A."
Provenance1986, commissioned from the artist for the MFA with financial support of Anne and Ronald Abramson, Rockville, Maryland; 1987, gift of the Abramsons to the MFA. (Accession date: January 21, 1987)
CopyrightReproduced with permission.