Silas Kopf (born 1949) is an American furniture maker specializing in the art of

marquetry Marquetry (also spelled as marqueterie; from the French ''marqueter'', to variegate) is the art and craft of applying pieces of veneer to a structure to form decorative patterns, designs or pictures. The technique may be applied to case fur ...

. Kopf graduated from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1972 with a degree in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and soon began designing and making furniture. In 1988, he received a Craftsman's Fellowship from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

, and used the opportunity to study traditional marquetry technique at the

École Boulle The École Boulle is a college of fine arts and crafts and applied arts in Paris, France. History The École Boulle was founded in 1886 and is named after the cabinetmaker André-Charles Boulle, who is generally considered to be the preeminent ...

, an institute of interior architecture and design, in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. His major projects include several

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

s commissioned by Steinway & Sons and benches, desks, and cabinets for private collections and museums. His designs frequently incorporate floral depictions, other images from nature, and ''

trompe-l'œil ''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...

'' concepts. He first became interested in marquetry because he hoped for an alternative, less consumerist lifestyle. Kopf was named Master of the Medium by the James Renwick Alliance of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

for 2015. This biennial award recognizes American craftspeople in the fields of wood, ceramics, glass, metal, and fiber. Since 1978, he has worked in

Easthampton, Massachusetts Easthampton is a city in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The city is on the southeastern edge of the Pioneer Valley near the five colleges in the college towns of Northampton and Amherst. The population was 16,211 at the 2020 ...

, where he continues to build and design. He has an assistant, Tom Coughlin, who also designs and builds

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

References

External links

Boston Globe article about Kopf

Kopf's Business Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kopf, Silas 1949 births Living people American furniture makers Trompe-l'œil artists Princeton University alumni