Classic outline of wood chair, beside wood dresser
Special Installation

The Calculated Curve: Eighteenth-Century American Furniture

The 2024 reinstallation of the Anthony W. and Lulu C. Wang Galleries of Eighteenth-Century American Art of The Met’s American Wing elevates a pivotal moment in American furniture design between 1720 and 1770. This fresh installation encourages us to look closer at the materials and sculptural expression of this period, as well as the sensuality and ergonomics embedded in furniture design.

The reinstalled galleries will feature iconic American furniture from the H. Eugene Bolles and Natalie Knowlton Blair collections, in addition to more recent gifts from premier collectors such as the Wangs as well as Erving and Joy Wolf. This striking display offers a counterpoint to the contextual installations of eighteenth-century furniture in the American Wing’s period rooms.

Major support for The Calculated Curve: Eighteenth-Century American Furniture is provided by The Edward John and Patricia Rosenwald Foundation.



High chest of drawers (detail), 1730–50, American. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Cecile L. Mayer, 1962

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Classic outline of wood chair, beside wood dresser