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.[3] He has been referred to as the "father of the art furniture movement"[4] and included in the "Big 4" of modern woodworking with Wharton Esherick, George Nakashima, and Sam Maloof.[5]
Castle introduced a woodworking technique called stack lamination to the creation of furniture. Originally used for making duck decoys, this technique allowed "infinite flexibility"[1] and unprecedented control over shape and form.[5][6] In addition to working in wood, he used plastics and metals.[5]
Castle was born in Emporia, Kansas. He grew up and graduated from Holton High School in Holton, Kansas Class of 1951.[5] In 1958, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in industrial design, and in 1961, he received a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture, both from the University of Kansas.[7][1]
Career
From 1962-1969, Castle taught at Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Craftsmen, in Rochester, NY, and was an Artist in Residence.[8][9] He bought a former soybean mill in Scottsville, New York in 1967[5] and converted it into a 15,000-square-foot studio.[10] It stands near the former Baltimore & Ohio railroad station, the studio of Castle's wife, ceramicist and sculptor Nancy Jurs.[5]
From 1969 to 1980 Castle taught on the faculty of The College at Brockport, State University of New York.[11]
In 1980, he opened the Wendell Castle School in Scottsville. The nonprofit 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.[12]
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.[13] One example of this technique is his Chair Standing on its Head, which features a realistic-looking wooden pillow.
"Wendell Castle will always be known for his beautiful objects that defy definitions of sculpture or furniture, not easily categorized as art or design."– Saralyn Reece Hardy, Spencer Museum of Art[7]
Castle died of leukemia in 2018. He was survived by his wife of fifty years, Nancy Jurs.[14]
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.
^Visionaries of the American Craft Movement: Wendell Castle, Mildred Constantine, Harvey Littleton, Henry Luce III. NY: The Rainbow Room. June 6, 1994.
