Added: May 23, 2009

From: kittels18

Duration: 6:11

Wendell Castle Coffee table interview Wendell Castle (b. November 6, 1932 in Emporia, Kansas, USA) is an American furniture artist and a leading figure in American craft. He is often credited with being the father of the art furniture movement. Castle is the graphic representation of a haughty, yet humble elder artist who respects his position as teacher and mentor. Educated as an industrial designer at KU in the 1960s and staying to complete an MFA in sculpture, Wendell Castle brings technique and precision to his fanciful furniture and creates cutting edge designs that are timeless in their appeal. Throughout his career, Castle has inspired and advised hundreds of young students. He was on staff at the University of Kansas before he headed east to join the faculty at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the State University of New York at Brockport. Castle opened his own art school through the 1980s, not unlike Frank Lloyd Wright. His work is found in important private and public collections all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Met in New York. He works in whatever medium the design demands be it wood, bronze, or plastic. Well known for his art furniture this American established a reputation for high levels of craftsmanship and understanding of materials as well as drawing on a range of European artists and styles for inspiration. His early work, such as the critically acclaimed wooden Scribe's Stool of 1959-62, was strongly sculptural in feel, recalling the flowing forms of Art Nouveau, sculpture by Giacometti, and furniture by Finn Juhl as well as showing the legacy of the American sculptor and furniture maker Wharton Esherick (1887-1970). This also reflected his training in sculpture in metal and wood at the University of Kansas. In the 1960s he worked in other materials, including fibreglass, drawing on Pop and contemporary Italian design, going on, in the later 1970s and 1980s to explore the possibilities of Surealism and trompe l'œil and draw upon the eclectic possibilities of Postmodernism. Wendell Castle is the undisputed leader of the contemporary studio furniture movement, a living master who taps an astounding well of creative ingenuity. George Nakashima, Wharton Esherick, Wendell Castle, David Ebner, Peter Voulkos, Ed Moulthrop among others WENDELL CASTLE is tops his UNIQUE COFFEE TABLE sell for over 100,000 Sotheby's recently Sold For $122500 14th Jun 08 Lot #104

Channel: Education

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