In January 2018, we lost Wendell Castle, a legendary American furniture designer who is described as the father of the art furniture movement. He was zealously driven as a sculptor, designer and educator for more than four decades. Today, his legend lives on in modern furniture as a major art form. He was in the middle of preparing a new body of work at the age of 85 and was creative and hardworking till the end. Wendell reimagined furniture at every level and his works are sculptural, organic and biomorphic with no straight lines and embrace nature.
I had the absolute pleasure of viewing Wendell Castle’s last exhibition at the Friedman Benda in 2017. Entitled Embracing Upheaval, it displayed major works created in wood and bronze. Many of the sculptural forms were designed for seating. Organic and suggestive of natural tree trunks, most of the stunning works are large scale with wonderful curves and substantial presence.
To deliver his vision of furniture to a wider audience, in 1998 Wendell founded The Wendell Castle Collection. Handcrafted in the original workshop, each work is crafted by world class craftsmen and women and follow the artistic and high quality standards that he set.
