• Henley DFAS

The Empty Chair in Contemporary Art from van Gogh to Ai Weiwei

The Empty Chair in Contemporary Art from van Gogh to Ai Weiwei
Thursday 16th October 2025
Angela Findlay
Angela Findlay: The Empty Chair in Contemporary Art from van Gogh to Ai Weiwei
We all use chairs! But over the past 150 years, artists across the world have been using the humble chair as a conduit for profound ideas on themes from protest, absence and memory to domestic or everyday life. Starting with arguably the world’s most famous empty chair by Vincent van Gogh, we move through 20th century Europe.