our latest histroy article examines still life pieces which feature the chair and manipulations of the undemanding object. ‘traditionally, sculptors have rarely taken things as their subjects, usually concentrating on the human figure. to do so they created an interesting confusion between a design object and a sculptural object, where the basic distinction between them was that a design object had to be functional, while a sculptural object did not. the transformed object is an apparition of everyday reality and the relatively frivolous inventions have overtones of grim absurdity. read more images clockwise: ‘bicycle wheel’ by marcel duchamp, 1913 ‘fat chair’ by joseph beuys, 1964 ‘neon tube chair’ by paul tames van den berg, 2005 ‘tombeaux # 9’ by jan vercruysse, 1988