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| Dr. Caligari |
WENDELL CASTLE’S ART
by
Joan K. Yanni
The art of Wendell Castle has long been a favorite of
Gallery visitors and staff. Some of his
art is always on view: the suggestion box, for example, and the Caligari
clock. Recently his Music Rack was chosen to be part of the new exhibit, Crafting Modernism. In its place now is Table with Tablecloth, one of Castle’s signature works, with both
table and tablecloth carved of wood.
The clock attracts attention immediately. It is located
where the Vandenbrul Pavilion opens into the 20th-century art space.
It can’t be missed: it is 92 1/2 inches tall and made of curly cherry veneer,
ebony and gold-plated brass. It is
painted a vivid blue. How does the clock run? It contains a special West German
weight-driven movement that strikes every quarter hour. Three small holes in
the back near the top permit winding and setting.
Other pieces by Castle in the same area of the Gallery
include a walnut Suggestion Box, created
in 1972 when Castle was producing furniture in natural, organic forms using a
lamination technique. Suggestion
Box is tree-like, with a natural wood color and grain. Commissioned by the
Gallery, it is a combination of desk and ballot box and includes holders for a
pen or pencil and specially-made suggestion cards as well as a slot in which
Gallery visitors may insert their suggestions. A tiny hole underneath the front
of the top permits the insertion of a nail-like key which, with a push, will
open the top to expose the suggestions.
For almost 50 years Castle’s work has inspired viewers to
look at furniture in a new way. Superbly
crafted and often filled with a sense of whimsy, his recent pieces reinterpret
ideas about function, form, line, color and mass. His work stands in the worlds of furniture,
sculpture and design simultaneously. He is often credited with being the father
of the art furniture movement.
Wendell Castle was born in Kansas in 1932. In 1958 he received an
undergraduate degree in industrial design and in 1961 a Master of Fine Arts in
sculpture, both from the University of Kansas. He came to the RIT furniture design department in 1962 and taught
there in the RIT School
He stopped making furniture for a time in 1969 and
concentrated on large, fiberglass sculpture, two examples of which can be seen
near Rochester 's
Chamber of Commerce and at Marine Midland Bank. In 1970 he moved to SUNY
Brockport, and then returned to RIT
in 1984 as tenured professor and artist-in-residence, a position in which
Castle gives critiques and lectures, represents RIT
nationally, and continues to create.
More than two decades ago Ron Netsky, in an article in
"Upstate Magazine” said that Castle’s reputation, “established early and
bolstered by every new series he creates, has earned him that greatest of
commodities, a license to create
whatever he wants, knowing there will be a market for his work." His designs have gone from the organic, to
the trompe l'oeil (the hat on the table and the suit coat on the chair
are all carved of wood), to the whimsical and classical. In 1980 he opened the Wendell Castle
School Scottsville , NY
His bold and experimental works can be found in the
permanent collections of many prestigious institutions such as The Museum of Modern
Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Smithsonian’s American Art Museum Washington ,
D.C.
Castle is the recipient of numerous awards and honors,
including three honorary doctoral degrees, the 1994 “Visionaries of the
American Craft Movement,” sponsored by the American Craft Museum, a 1997 Gold
Medal from the American Craft council, and the Modernism Design Award for
Lifetime Achievement from the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2007.
His studio is in a renovated bean mill in Scottsville; there
he designs and makes drawings which are converted into wood by his staff.
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