SEAT OF POWER: Charles Pollock, who designed the iconic Executive Chair (above), died yesterday morning when his Queens studio caught fire.
SEAT OF POWER: Charles Pollock, who designed the iconic Executive Chair, died yesterday morning when his Queens studio (above) caught fire.
SEAT OF POWER: Charles Pollock, who designed the iconic Executive Chair (above left), died yesterday morning when his Queens studio (above center) caught fire. (NY Post: Brian Zak)
A famed but troubled 83-year-old furniture designer died yesterday when a smoky fire engulfed his tiny studio in Queens, authorities said.
Charles Pollock — who in 1963 created the classic Pollock Executive Chair — tried to escape his first-floor space on 157th Street in South Jamaica when the blaze broke out at about 7 a.m.
“I smelled the smoke and I heard banging,” said Mary Kayulu, 48, who lives in the basement apartment and sent her daughter, Naomi Ebouki, 20, to check on their neighbor.
Ebouki opened Pollock’s door, but the artist — who used a motorized wheelchair — was already dead.
“Firefighters tried to go inside, but it was too late,” she said.
Pollock was pronounced dead at the scene, and the cause of the blaze is under investigation.
Buildings officials said the two-story, wood-frame structure had been illegally subdivided into four apartments, and slapped owner EMA Development Corp. with six violations, including defective wiring and using gas without a permit.
Although Pollock was back at work on a new design when he died, his career went through a series of ups and downs as he struggled with bipolar disorder, friends and relatives said.
“I’m hysterical,” said Sheryl Fratell of East 53rd Street, Pollock’s roommate and partner of 27 years.
“He was bigger than life. He loved people. He was handsome, talented and eccentric,” she said.
Pollock’s former wife, Maud Nordwald-Pollock, 79, of Hampton Bays, described a brilliant designer who was plagued by mental illness.
“In a way, his time was up,” said Nordwald-Pollock, who was married to him from 1968 to 1980.
But Pollock was still creating new designs when he died, a partner said.
Jerry Helling of Bernhardt Design in North Carolina and Pollock designed a new chair — the CP Lounge Chair — last year.
“The most charming thing about Charles was his amazing sense of humor. He saw humor in everything,” he said.
Pollock, a Michigan native who graduated from Pratt Institute, cemented his reputation with the Executive Chair, which is seen on “Mad Men” and has been displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
“His dedication to pushing the frontiers of design has left an impact on all of us,” said Pratt President Thomas Schutte.