TAMPA, FL.- The Tampa Museum of Art announced the opening of its featured summer exhibition, A Hundred Years - A Hundred Chairs. Masterworks from the Vitra Design Museum, on display through September 16, 2012.

Design played an important role in cultural development at the beginning of the 19th century, and following the Second World War, American designers began to collaborate closely with industry, developing designs that would be used for mass production of furniture.

This exciting exhibition offers an intimate view of different periods of industrial furniture design throughout the century, showcasing chairs by designers such as Charles Eames, Marcel Breuer, Eero Saarinen and Harry Bertoia alongside drawings, sketches, historical documents and information on production techniques relating to each chair.

Pop Art inspired later designers such as Verner Panton to play on form and color, and the search for simple, innovative shapes and materials characterizes furniture by those such as Frank Gehry in the last of this century.

“We are so proud to host this exhibition, which stands out as the largest design show in the history of our region,” said Todd D. Smith, the Museum’s executive director. “We are fortunate to have such an architecturally important home for the Museum, and we feel the built environment provides context to these individual elements of functional design.”

The Vitra Design Museum maintains one of the most important collections of modern furniture design, and this exhibition provides an opportunity to contemplate some of their most significant and beautiful chairs. Please join the Museum in celebrating the designers and artists who pushed boundaries and elevated design to a key element of daily life.