Wendell Castle Remastered is the first museum exhibition to showcase the digitally crafted works of Wendell Castle, acclaimed figure of the American art furniture movement. A master furniture maker, designer, sculptor, and educator, Castle is now in the sixth decade of a prolific career that began in 1958—one that parallels the emergence and growth of the American studio craft movement. The exhibition is the largest yet of this internationally renowned artist and his groundbreaking achievements.
The exhibition will feature approximately 40 works of art, including several historically important examples that illustrate the innovations of his stack-lamination technique, and a few selections from his mold-form fiberglass experiments. These are the inspiration for the contemporary works that Castle has been creating with his state-of-the-art robot, which utilizes a process similar to his early stack-lamination carving, but with greater precision and complexity. Castle’s current studio practice combines handcraftsmanship—such as carving, rasping, and finishing—with digital technologies, including 3D scanning, 3D modeling, and computer-controlled milling. These new works will be installed in dialogue with the earlier pieces that inspired them.
Among the many highlights of the exhibition will be the seminal Walnut Sculpture of 1958–59, and the monumental Library Sculpture of 1965; the latter was not included in the original presentation of the exhibition at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City. Recent works will include the towering lamp High Hopes of 2015, and the elegant and wave-like three-person bench The Secret of a Few of 2012. Castle is creating a number of new works to debut at MAG, which will offer museum visitors an opportunity to explore the latest developments of a career that continues to evolve in exciting ways.
Even though Castle’s approach to furniture making has advanced through his use of 21st-century digital tools, it remains rooted in handcraftsmanship and the same imagination that liberated the artist from the language of traditional joinery decades ago. His early innovations include the first use of stack lamination in furniture, the creation of volumetric forms with a sculptural presence in the round, a vocabulary of softly organic shapes, and the invention of new furniture hybrids. This pioneering approach has enabled Castle to work in a process as analogous to sculpture as it is to traditional furniture making.
EXHIBITION CREDIT LINE:
Wendell Castle Remastered at the Memorial Art Gallery is an adaptation of the exhibition originally presented at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, in 2015.
In Rochester, the exhibition is presented by the Gallery Council of the Memorial Art Gallery and Constellation Brands. Additional support is provided by Canandaigua National Bank, Michael Jesselson, Nocon & Associates, A private wealth advisory practice of Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., the Robert L. and Mary L. Sproull Fund, the Anne and Ronald Abramson Family Foundation, the Rubens Family Foundation, and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas F. Judson, Jr.
About the artist
Wendell Castle is widely considered to be the father of the art furniture movement. He moved to the Rochester, New York area in 1962 to accept a position at Rochester Institute of Technology’s School for American Crafts. Soon after he established his world- class workshop, employing talented students and graduates from the very program where he taught, influencing a new generation of designers, artists and craftsmen. From 1980 to 1988, Castle operated his own art school at his studio in Scottsville, a neighboring village to Rochester, which later merged with RIT. He is currently on staff at RIT as Artist-in-Residence and exhibits, lectures and teaches regularly throughout the world. Upcoming presentations include a solo exhibition scheduled to open summer 2018 at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City.
Castle’s work may be found in the permanent collections of major museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Detroit Institute of Art; the Museum of Fine Arts (Houston, TX); the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO), and the Victoria Albert Museum, London, England.
He has been recognized many times over for his contributions to the design and art fields in the United States, having received numerous awards, grants and honors for his accomplishments. These include four honorary doctoral degrees, several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arts & Cultural Council of Rochester, the Eastman Medal from the University of Rochester, the Gold Medal Award and being named a Fellow by the American Craft Council, the Golden Plate award from the American Academy of Achievement, the Visionaries award from the Museum of Art & Design, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Kansas School of Fine Arts, the Award of Distinction from the Furniture Society, the Outstanding Achievement Award, from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and the Lifetime Achievement Award For Excellence in Design from the Brooklyn Museum.