Wendell Castle

A founder and icon of the Studio Furniture movement, the popular sculptor and furniture designer Wendell Castle (born 1932) has carved a distinct path over nearly six decades of a distinguished career. This long-awaited and richly illustrated record of his oeuvre, Wendell Castle: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1958-2012, beautifully delivers a worthy homage to his talents. From Castle’s earliest, mid-century works through to his unabashedly forward-thinking experiments with unconventional materials (gel-coated fiberglass and metallic automobile paint, for example) and his latest signature wood laminations, the common thread that ties these diverse pieces together is Castle’s knack for uniting appealing function with biomorphic elegance. Castle’s pieces are widely collected and his works feature in the permanent collections of more than 40 museums and cultural institutions around the world, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York); Museum of Modern Art (New York); Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D.C.); Musée des Beaux-arts de Montréal (Quebec, Canada); and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London). Three essays supplying varying perspectives introduce the catalogue raisonné and substantial back matter is included.