Wendell Castle is an American furniture artist and a leading figure in American craft

American craft

American craft is an entity of the American contribution to the family of artistic practices conducted by independent studio artists. In this case Studio Craft artists work specifically with traditional craft materials and/or processes such as wood, woodworking or furniture making, glass or...

. He is often credited with being the father of the art furniture movement.

In 1958, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in industrial design

Industrial design

Industrial design is the use of a combination of applied art and applied science to improve the aesthetics, ergonomics, and usability of a product, but it may also be used to improve the product's marketability and production...

, and in 1961, he received a Master of Fine Arts, both from the University of Kansas

University of Kansas

The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...

.

From 1962-1969, he taught at Rochester Institute of Technology

Rochester Institute of Technology

The Rochester Institute of Technology is a private university, located within the town of Henrietta in metropolitan Rochester, New York, United States...

, School for American Craftsmen, in Rochester, NY, and is now an Artist in Residence. In 1980, he opened the Wendell Castle School in Scottsville, NY.

He has garnered a number of awards, including a 1994 'Visionaries of the American Craft Movement' award sponsored by the American Craft Museum, a 1997 Gold Medal from the American Craft Council

American Craft Council

The American Craft Council , was founded in 1943 as a national, nonprofit, educational organization to support and foster interest in the crafts in America. The council sponsers national craft shows, publishes American Craft magazine, and has an extensive awards program...

 and a 1998 Artist of the Year Award from the Arts & Cultural Council for Greater Rochester. He has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Comfort Tiffany Foundation. In 2001 he received the Award of Distinction

Award of Distinction

The Award of Distinction is conferred annually by The Furniture Society upon one or more living individuals who are recognized as having had a profound impact on the field of Studio Furniture...

 from The Furniture Society.

Permanent collections

Museums

• Addison Gallery of American Art
  Addison Gallery of American Art
  The Addison Gallery of American Art, as a department of Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, is an academic museum dedicated to collecting American art...
  
  , Andover, MA
• Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
• Art Museum Project, Dearborn, MI
• High Museum, Atlanta, GA
• Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
• Burchfield-Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY
• Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
• Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
• Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, WI
• Design Museum Ghent, Ghent, Belgium
• Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE
• Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI
• Everson Museum, Syracuse, NY
• Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
• Ithaca College Art Museum, Ithaca, NY
• Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art, Denver, CO
• Lannan Foundation Collection, Los Angeles, CA
• Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
• Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK
• Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Manhattan, KS
• Metropolitan Museum Of Art, New York, NY
• Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
• Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
• Mint Museum of Craft + Design, Charlotte, NC
• Mobile Museum of Fine Arts, Mobile, AL
• Museum of Art, St. Louis, MO
• The Museum of Art and Design, New York, NY
• Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal, Canada
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
• Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
• Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
• Nordenfieldske Kunstindustrimiseet, Oslo, Norway
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
• Racine Art Museum, Racine, WI
• Renwick Gallery, The National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
• Rochester Institute of Technology, Bevier Gallery, NY
• Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
• Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS
• Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH
• University of New Hampshire Art Museum, Durham, NH
• University of Utah Art Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA
• Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
• The White House, Washington, DC

PUBLIC/CORPORATE INSTALLATIONS

• American Express, New York, NY
• Bausch and Lomb, Rochester, NY
• Best Company, Richmond, VA
• Dupont Center, Orlando, FL
• Encyclopædia Britannica Company, Chicago, IL
• Forbes Company, New York, NY
• Gilman Foundation, New York, NY
• Greater Rochester International Airport, NY
• Gannett Corporation, Washington, DC
• Hammerson Canada, Inc., Toronto, Canada
• Johnson Wax, Racine, WI
• Maccabees Mutual Life Insurance, Detroit, MI
• Nationsbank, Atlanta, GA
• Pillar Bryton Partners, FL
• Rosecliff Investments, New York, NY
• Steinway Company, Long Island City, NY
• Sydney Bestoff, New Orleans, LA
• Wolfsonian Foundation, FL

External links

• Artist official homepage - http://www.wendellcastle.com/
• Wendell Castle Collection - http://www.wendellcastlecollection.com/
• Furniture Society site- http://www.furnituresociety.org/

Publications

• 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. Cook, Jr., and Joseph Giovannini. Furniture by Wendell Castle. Hudson Hills Press, 1989.