Wendell castle
Abilene, 2008
Stainless Steel
30 1/2 x 52 x 30 inches
Edition 5 of 8
Courtesy of Barry Friedman Ltd. NY, NY
Photographed by: Jon Lam
Wendell Castle
Topeka Clock, 2009
Polycoromed fiberglass
99 3/4 x 66 3/4 x 39 inches
Edition 2 of 8
Image and Clock Courtesy of Barry Friedman Ltd. NY, NY
Click images for detailed view.
Artist Wendell Castle’s evocative works are furniture in name only
By NICK MALEWSKI
The Kansas City Star
Posted on Wed, May 11, 2011 10:15 PM
“Form follows function” is a design principle that Kansas-born, New York-based artist Wendell Castle seems delighted to disregard.
Much like the late American sculptor Scott Burton, Castle gives priority to formal considerations when he designs furniture. Issues of function are secondary, which is fitting for an artist who got his master of fine arts in sculpture and never studied furniture design.
A stylish exhibit at the Belger Arts Center titled “Wendell Castle in the 21st Century” features 14 esthetically arresting pieces of furniture on loan from the Barry Friedman gallery in New York.
“Iris” looks more like an abstract representation of a fowl than a chair. A recumbent ovoid with a depression carved into it serves as a seat, and a narrow appendage in the shape of a bent neck serves as a backrest.
Made of stained ash, this work provides a fine example of the graceful, curving forms Castle achieves with a technique in which he carves into stacked and laminated wood.
“Iris” is elevated on a pedestal, sending the message that, within the exhibition, its status as sculpture overshadows its function as furniture. This message is conveyed throughout the show, although Castle thinks it’s fine if buyers of his chairs choose to use them.
“Naiad,” a stained mahogany chair also on a pedestal, evokes imaginary and actual creatures. The title calls to mind the water nymphs of Greek mythology, but the dramatic diagonal striations in the elliptical base are reminiscent of the grooves in the shells of freshwater mussels.
Although this exhibit features a profusion of chairs made of wood, stainless steel and polychromed fiberglass, there are a few other peculiar pieces here as well.
“Willy Willy” is a bizarre mahogany chest with only one drawer. The title and the formal elements call to mind Australian dust devils. Three conical legs converge at the bottom of a rounded yet indistinct body pocked by a whirlwind of tool markings.
Castle has said of making tables that, below the requisite flat top, an artist is free to do anything. In his Peruvian walnut table, “Got Away,” he explored this idea to a fanciful finish. The work looks like the hull of a ship precariously balanced on legs resembling truncated roots.
Castle also has expressed his wish to baffle people with the eccentricity of his furniture. He has achieved this perhaps most successfully with his clocks. One such clock made more than a decade ago consisted of a bell shape that was driven by an internal mechanism to roll around in circles on the floor. It’s not part of this display, but his “Topeka Clock” is.
The second in an edition of eight polychromed fiberglass clocks, “Topeka Clock” more clearly carries out the function of telling time but is nevertheless strange and vaguely sexual. A tall, slightly curved column with a tapered top appears to lean against a white, oversize doughnut. Numbers are placed around the rotating top of the column.
In the April 2008 issue of Art + Auction magazine, Castle said that he wants his furniture to be appreciated like art. The pieces in this show give viewers plenty of reasons to do just that.
Belger Arts Center Statement.
The Belger Arts Center is located at 2100 Walnut Street (one block east of Main) in the Belger Cartage Service building. The gallery is open Wednesday through Friday from 10 am – 4 pm, Saturday from noon – 4 pm, non-holiday First Fridays from 10 am – 9 pm, and by appointment.
The office for the Belger Arts Center is open Monday through Friday from 8 am – 4:30 pm. For more information please visit www.belgerartscenter.org or contact Gallery Assistant Mo Dickens at
(816) 474-3250 or Email at mdickens@belgerartscenter.org.
Since March of 2000 the Belger Arts Center has hosted more than 40 exhibitions featuring a variety of media including fiber, ceramics, painting, sculpture, digital projections, and innovative design. More than 60,000 visitors from six continents have attended exhibits and other events at the Belger Arts Center. |
