Displaying items by tag: wendell castle

Revered as the “Dean of American Craftsmen,” Wharton Harris Esherick played a pivotal role in establishing the American Studio Furniture Movement. A visionary in the truest sense, Esherick was the first craftsman to approach furniture as sculpture -- a notion that influenced an entire generation of designer-craftsmen, including Arthur Espenet Carpenter, Sam Maloof, and Wendell Castle (read more about Wendell Castle and his latest work).

A trained painter and printmaker, Esherick’s fascination with wood began in 1920, when he started carving designs on the frames for his paintings. Soon, he was carving woodcuts and crafting sinuous organic sculptures, furniture, and architectural interiors...

Continue reading this article about Wharton Harris Esherick at Moderne Gallery on InCollect.com.

Wendell Castle is a living legend. Widely considered the father of the American studio furniture  movement, Castle has spent more than five decades exploring the boundaries between fine art and craft, form and function. Astonishingly prolific and ceaselessly experimental, Castle’s sculptural designs have profoundly affected how we view furniture today.

Born in Kansas in 1932, Castle earned a  BFA in Industrial Design and a MFA in Sculpture from the University of Kansas. After graduating in 1961, he moved to Rochester, New York, where he established a permanent studio and began teaching at the Rochester Institute of Technology’s (RIT) School for American Craftsmen. Along with iconic designers and furnituremakers, including  George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Wharton Esherick, and Arthur Espenet Carpenter, Castle helped shape the studio furniture movement throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

Visit InCollect.com to read more about the Wendell Castle exhibit at Friedman Benda.

The Kentucky Museum of Arts and Craft is celebrating the career of Wendell Castle (b. 1932) with the exhibition Wendell Castle: Forms within Forms – The 21^st Century. The show is meant to coincide with Castle’s 80^th birthday as well as a number of other concurrent exhibitions taking place at various galleries and museums across the country. Castle, a furniture artist who helped lead the American craft movement, has been a pioneering presence in the design world for over 50 years.

Forms within Forms focuses on Castle’s newer works, many of which employ stack-lamination, a technique he first used in the 1960s, and draws connections to his previous pieces, illustrating how the artist has been influenced by his own work. Besides showcasing Castle’s biomorphic, sculptural furniture pieces, the exhibition also explores Castle’s powerful presence in a field populated by few artists.

The exhibition will be on view through February 4, 2013.