Max Jules Gottschalk (1909–2005) was an artist,

furniture designer This is a list of notable people whose primary occupation is furniture design. A * Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) * Eero Aarnio (born 1932) * Robert Adam (1728-1792) * Thomas Affleck (1745-1795) * Franco Albini (1905-1977) * Davis Allen (1916-1999) * ...

, and

industrial designer Industrial design is a process of design applied to physical 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 advance of the manufactur ...

History

Gottschalk was born in 1909 in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

. He graduated from

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...

in the late 1930s.

Newfoundland

Afterwards, he moved to the

Dominion of Newfoundland Newfoundland was a British dominion in eastern North America, today the modern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was established on 26 September 1907, and confirmed by the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westmi ...

where he worked as Chief Technical Advisor of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Reconstruction. The Newfoundland government assigned him the task of designing workshop

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

for the agricultural community of

Markland Markland () is the name given to one of three lands on North America's Atlantic shore discovered by Leif Eriksson around 1000 AD. It was located south of Helluland and north of Vinland. Although it was never recorded to be settled by Norsemen, th ...

. His designs combined modernist principles with the use of natural materials. The onset World War II ended the government's

economic reconstruction Economic reconstruction is a process for creating a proactive vision of economic change. The most basic idea is that problems in the economy, such as deindustrialization, environmental decay, outsourcing, industrial incompetence, poverty and ad ...

programs and Gottschalk’s work.

Arizona

Gottschalk then returned to the United States, moving to

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. He became a professor of

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 ...

at the new

Modernist style Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

West Campus of

Pima Community College Pima Community College (PCC) is a public community college in Pima County, Arizona. It serves the Tucson metropolitan area with a community college district consisting of five campuses, four education centers, and several adult education learnin ...

. Gottschalk's most productive artistic period was in Arizona, from the 1950s to his death in 2005. His artistic interests included mid-century modern industrial design which combined "natural" materials like leather with production materials such as aluminum and steel. The result was beautifully proportioned work that embraced and embodied both the Southwestern aesthetic and Modern design principles. Gottschalk often worked with leather that was irregular and flawed, celebrating the material's imperfections. His distinctive logo appears on all of his products. He also created oil paintings.

Gallery

Examples of Gottschalk's work include: File:Max Gottschalk - Bar stool 1.jpg , 1970s Leather & Steel Chair – pair File:Max Gottschalk - Bar stool 3.jpg , 1970s Leather & Steel Chair – closeup File:Max Gottschalk - Bar stool 4.jpg , 1970s Leather & Steel Chair – feet File:Max Gottschalk - Bar stool 5.jpg , 1970s Leather & Steel Chair – front File:Max Gottschalk - Bar stool 6.jpg , 1970s Leather & Steel Chair – back w/logo File:Max Gottschalk - Bar stool 7.jpg , 1970s Leather & Steel Chair – side Image:Gottschalk_Barsool_Logo.jpg, 1960s era Barstool – Logo Image:Gottschalk Chair Logo 01-72dpi.jpg , 1970s Leather & Aluminum Chair – Logo Image:Gottschall Chair Front 01.jpg , 1970s Leather & Aluminum Chair – Front #1 Image:Gottschalk Chair Top 01.jpg , 1970s Leather & Aluminum Chair – Top Image:Gottschalk Chair Side 01.jpg , 1970s Leather & Aluminum Chair – Side

References

* Donald Wilcox, ''Modern Leather Design'', Watson Guptill, New York, 1982.

External links