Wendell Castle (November 6, 1932 – January 20, 2018) was an American sculptor and furniture maker and an important figure in late 20th century

American craft American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

. He has been referred to as the "father of the art furniture movement" and included in the "Big 4" of modern woodworking with

Wharton Esherick Wharton Esherick (July 15, 1887 – May 6, 1970) was an American sculptor who worked primarily in wood, especially applying the principles of sculpture to common utilitarian objects. Consequently, he is best known for his sculptural furniture a ...

George Nakashima George Katsutoshi Nakashima ( ja, 中島勝寿 ''Nakashima Katsutoshi'', May 24, 1905 – June 15, 1990) was an American woodworker, architect, and furniture maker who was one of the leading innovators of 20th century furniture design and a fathe ...

, and

Sam Maloof Sam Maloof (January 24, 1916 – May 21, 2009)
''Press-Enterprise'', ...

. Castle introduced a woodworking technique called stack lamination to the creation of furniture. Originally used for making duck decoys, this technique allowed "infinite flexibility" and unprecedented control over shape and form. In addition to working in wood, he used plastics and metals. During his life, Castle received many of awards including a 1994 'Visionaries of the American Craft Movement' award sponsored by the

American Craft Museum The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the mus ...

, a 1997 Gold Medal from the

American Craft Council The American Craft Council (ACC) is a national non-profit organization that champions craft based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1943 by Aileen Osborn Webb, the council hosts national craft shows and conferences, publishes a quarterly mag ...

, and a 2001

Award of Distinction The Furniture Society, founded in 1996, is a membership-based, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation working to advance the art of furniture making by inspiring creativity, promoting excellence and fostering understanding of this art. The So ...

from

The Furniture Society The Furniture Society, founded in 1996, is a membership-based, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation working to advance the art of furniture making by inspiring creativity, promoting excellence and fostering understanding of this art. The So ...

Education

Castle was born in

Emporia, Kansas Emporia is a city in and the county seat of Lyon County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 24,139. Emporia lies between Topeka and Wichita at the intersection of U.S. Route 50 with Interstates 335 ...

. He grew up and graduated from Holton High School in Holton, Kansas Class of 1951. In 1958, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in

industrial design Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical Product (business), products that are to be manufactured by mass production. It is the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features, which takes place in advan ...

, and in 1961, he received a Master of Fine Arts in

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

, both from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

Career

From 1962-1969, Castle taught at

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

, School for American Craftsmen, in Rochester, NY, and was an Artist in Residence. He bought a former soybean mill in

Scottsville, New York Scottsville is a village in southwestern Monroe County, New York, United States, and is in the northeastern part of the Town of Wheatland. The population was 2,001 at the 2010 census. The village is named after an early settler, Isaac Scott. Mos ...

in 1967 and converted it into a 15,000-square-foot studio. It stands near the former Baltimore & Ohio railroad station, the studio of Castle's wife, ceramicist and sculptor Nancy Jurs. From 1969 to 1980 Castle taught on the faculty of

The College at Brockport, State University of New York State University of New York Brockport (also known as SUNY Brockport or Brockport State, and previously The College at Brockport) is a public university in Brockport, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY). History ...

. In 1980, he opened the Wendell Castle School in Scottsville. The

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

school offered instruction in fine woodworking techniques and in furniture design. As of 1988 the Wendell Castle School became part of the Rochester Institute of Technology's furniture making program. Castle is famous for his pioneering use of stack-lamination, a woodworking technique he introduced in the 1960s. It was based on a 19th-century sculptural technique used for making duck decoys. Stack-lamination allowed Castle to create large blocks of wood out a series of planks, which were then carved and molded into the biomorphic shapes for which he is best known. Castle died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

in 2018. He was survived by his wife of fifty years, Nancy Jurs.

Awards

* National Endowment for the Arts Grants * 1988, Golden Plate Award,

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

* 1994 'Visionaries of the American Craft Movement' award,

* 1997, Gold Medal,

* 1998, Artist of the Year Award, Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. * 2001,

, The Furniture Society

Exhibitions

Museums

Addison Gallery of American Art The Addison Gallery of American Art is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art, organized as a department of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. History Directors of the gallery include Bartlett H. Hayes, Jr. (1940– ...

, Andover, MA *Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL *Art Museum Project, Dearborn, MI *High Museum, Atlanta, GA *Mount Dora Modernism Museum, FL *Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY *Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY *Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA *Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH *Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI *Design Museum Ghent, Ghent, Belgium *Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE *Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI *Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY *High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA *Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN *Ithaca College Art Museum, Ithaca, NY *Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Denver, CO * KMAC Museum, Louisville, KY *Lannan Foundation Collection, Los Angeles, CA *Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY *Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK *Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan, KS *Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, NY *Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI *Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN *Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC *Mobile Museum of Fine Arts, Mobile, AL *Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO *The Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY *Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Canada *Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA *Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX *Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY *The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO *Nordenfieldske Kunstindustrimiseet, Oslo, Norway *Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA *Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI *

Renwick Gallery The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum located in Washington, D.C. that displays American craft and decorative arts from the 19th to 21st century. The gallery is housed in a National Historic Landmark building that ...

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

, Washington, DC *Rochester Institute of Technology, Bevier Gallery, NY *Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC *Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS *Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH *University of New Hampshire Art Museum, Durham, NH *University of Utah Art Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT *Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA *Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS *The White House, Washington, DC

Public/corporate installations

*American Express, New York, NY *Bausch and Lomb, Rochester, NY *Best Company, Richmond, VA *

Chatsworth House Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family sin ...

, England *Dupont Center, Orlando, FL *Encyclopædia Britannica Company, Chicago, IL *Forbes Company, New York, NY *Gilman Foundation, New York, NY *Greater Rochester International Airport, NY *Gannett Corporation, Washington, DC *Hammerson Canada, Inc., Toronto, Canada *Johnson Wax, Racine, WI *Maccabees Mutual Life Insurance, Detroit, MI *Nationsbank, Atlanta, GA *Pillar Bryton Partners, FL *Rosecliff Investments, New York, NY *Steinway Company, Long Island City, NY *Sydney Bestoff, New Orleans, LA *Wolfsonian Foundation, FL

Publications

* Patricia Bayer, editor. ''The Fine Art of the Furniture Maker, Conversations with Wendell Castle, Artist, and Penelope Hunter-Steibel, Curator, about Selected Works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art''. Rochester, NY; Memorial Gallery of Art of the University of Rochester, 1981. * Wendell Castle and David Edman, ''The Wendell Castle Book of Wood Lamination''. VanNostrand Reinhold Publishers, 1980. *Davira S. Taragin, Edward S. Cooke, Jr., and Joseph Giovannini. ''Furniture by Wendell Castle''. Hudson Hills Press, 1989.

Examples of work

References

External links

Artist official homepageAn interview with Wendell Castle, conducted in 1981 by Robert F. Brown for the Archives of American ArtAn interview with Wendell Castle, conducted in 2013 by Jeannine Falino for the Archives of American Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Castle, Wendell American furniture designers American woodcarvers American sculptors 1932 births 2018 deaths People from Emporia, Kansas Artists from Kansas University of Kansas alumni Rochester Institute of Technology faculty