There are exhibitions that make you start seeing even the most familiar things differently. That is exactly what happens at the Horta Museum in Brussels in the new exhibition “Art Nouveau vs Art Deco? 1850–1950: a century in 31 chairs.” At first, it seems to be about furniture and a few iconic names in the history of design, but within minutes it becomes clear that the real protagonist of the exhibition is the very idea of the modern home and how it evolved over the course of a hundred years.

The curators invite visitors to set aside familiar labels such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco. These terms do not disappear, but they cease to be the main points of reference. It becomes far more interesting to trace how, over the course of a century, architects, artists and designers reflected on the same question: what should an everyday object that accompanies a person look like? Victor Horta, Henry van de Velde, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Charlotte Perriand, Charles and Ray Eames all belong to different generations, yet the exhibition encourages us to see them as participants in a single, ongoing conversation.

This conversation begins in the mid-19th century. One by one, thirty-one chairs appear, each becoming a point of reference for its own era. At the end of the 19th century, craftsmen free furniture from the heaviness of historical styles, expose its structure, and carefully study natural forms. In the early 20th century, new technologies gradually enter established practices, and the influence of industry becomes increasingly visible. Metal, bent wood, and moulded plywood transform not only the appearance of furniture but also the idea of who it is made for. Good design ceases to be a luxury and becomes part of everyday life.
At the same time, the exhibition does not turn history into a straight line. Here it becomes especially clear that artistic ideas exist simultaneously. Some designers continue to seek inspiration in the natural world, others explore geometry, others turn to the possibilities of the machine, while some return to craft traditions. All these explorations coexist, intersect and unexpectedly resonate with one another.

That is why, in the second part of the exhibition, chronology almost disappears. What comes to the foreground are themes that run through the entire century. Structure becomes an independent artistic statement: frames, joints and balance are no longer hidden but emphasised.

Nature remains an inexhaustible source of imagery, although its language gradually changes — from almost botanical precision to increasing abstraction. European designers look closely at Japan, the Middle East and folk traditions, and a more international design language slowly takes shape. Alongside this, industrial production develops, bringing with it a new aesthetic of materials and technologies.

At the same time, interest in craftsmanship, simplicity and natural wood persists — the very qualities that today are associated with “sustainable design”.

It is perhaps here that it becomes especially clear why the curators chose the chair as the central protagonist. It is one of the most complex objects in the history of design. It must bear weight, be comfortable, respond to the possibilities of production, and at the same time express each era’s ideas about beauty, comfort and lifestyle.

It seems striking how many cultural, social and technological changes a single object can contain.

This idea continues beyond the historical section of the exhibition. Students of industrial design at ENSAV La Cambre have created furniture for the museum’s visitors, and it does not feel like a separate contemporary project. Rather, it reads as another chapter in the same conversation that has been unfolding for more than a century.

Thanks to the scenography by the ALTU studio, this transition feels natural: historical objects and new works coexist within a single space, not in opposition, but in support of a shared theme.

Leaving the exhibition, you find yourself holding on to a simple thought. The history of design is the history of how human beings’ understanding of their own lives has changed. And perhaps the chair has been the most precise witness to these transformations.

It is always close to people — at home, in the workshop, in cafés, at school, in museums. Materials, technologies and forms evolve, but alongside them so does our idea of what the surrounding world can be.

My three favourites:

The chair designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh for Miss Catherine Cranston’s tea rooms in Glasgow around 1898 is one of the most recognisable works of early modernism and a symbol of the Scottish variant of the Art Nouveau style. Its elongated vertical backrest, strict geometry and almost graphic silhouette demonstrate a rejection of historical decorative forms in favour of artistic expression based on proportion and rhythm. Mackintosh regarded furniture as an integral part of the architectural space, creating a unified artistic ensemble in which each object shaped the atmosphere of the interior.

This chair reflects the turn-of-the-century tendency towards a synthesis of the arts, bringing together architecture, interior design and the decorative arts. Its form combines rational construction with refined ornamentality, characteristic of the Arts and Crafts movement, European Art Nouveau and the so-called Glasgow Style. Mackintosh’s work had a significant influence on the development of modernism, anticipating the geometric aesthetics of Art Deco and the functionalism of the 20th century, where the expressiveness of an object is achieved not through ornament, but through the perfection of form and construction.

The Lido chaise longue, designed by Battista and Gino Giudici around 1935, is a striking example of interwar European modernism, in which aesthetics are inseparable from functionality. Its structure of galvanised steel tubing and stretched waterproof fabric reflects the era’s interest in new industrial materials and technologies, while its pared-down silhouette is entirely subordinated to ergonomics and user comfort. The rejection of ornament in favour of structural expression brings the object closer to the principles of functionalism, where form becomes a direct consequence of purpose.

The chaise longue reflects the 1930s tendency towards the democratisation of design and the relocation of modern furniture into public spaces — beaches, terraces, sanatoriums and leisure areas. Unlike avant-garde furniture created primarily for elite interiors, the Lido was intended for mass use, combining durability, portability and comfort. In this work, one finds the expression of international modernism and Swiss functionalism, which asserted that good design should be rational, technological and accessible, responding to the needs of modern life.

The armchair (on the left in the photo), designed by Josef Chochol for the English Club in the Prague City Hall building in 1910–1911, is an outstanding example of Czech Cubism — a unique movement with no equivalent in European furniture design.

Its architectural treatment of form is expressed through sharp edges, crystalline planes and a dynamic silhouette, which make the object read almost as a sculptural volume. Unlike the flowing lines of Art Nouveau, Chochol employs geometric distortion of form to convey movement, tension and the object’s inner energy.

The armchair reflects the early 20th-century tendency towards a radical rethinking of traditional furniture under the influence of avant-garde art, above all Cubism. In its Czech interpretation, the principles of pictorial Cubism were for the first time systematically transferred into architecture and applied design, where geometry became the primary artistic language. Chochol’s work demonstrates the shift from the decorative qualities of Art Nouveau towards experimental avant-garde practice, anticipating the development of Expressionism and the constructive explorations of 20th-century European design.