Studio Furniture of the Renwick Gallery E-Book

Oscar P. Fitzgerald

• Herausgeber: Fox Chapel Publishing
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Seitenzahl: 220

Beschreibung

Take a tour of the Renwick Gallery, the craft division of the Smithsonian, and enjoy an in-depth look at the artists and the work of this unparalleled collection of handmade contemporary furniture. This absorbing volume features profiles and interviews of 64 artists and reveals their artistic influences and interpretations along with 112 stunning photos of iconic work.

Leseprobe

STUDIOFURNITURE

Contents

Foreword

Paul Greenhalgh

Acknowledgments

Building the Collection

The Collection

A Statistical Snapshot of the Collection

Bibliography

Stephen Courtney, Secretarial Desk (detail); see page 71.

Foreword

FURNITURE IS THE MOST OVERTLY FUNCTIONAL AND physical of all the arts. It keeps our bodies off the ground; it supports our repose; it provides our work surfaces; it stores and protects the stuff we eat and wear; and it protects and contains those precious things with which we choose to surround ourselves. It is core to our material existence.

But it is so much more. Furniture always has been a principal vehicle of human expression, from the earliest examples that have survived through the millennia up to the present. It has been a cultural signifier of prime importance, giving us indications as to the nature of the lives of those who made and used it. To look at ancient Egyptian or Chinese, eighteenth-century English, or nineteenth-century American Shaker furniture is to be presented with an essay on the social and spiritual mores of those peoples. It is an indicator of civilization.

Furniture is perhaps more allied to architecture than any of the other individual craft-based arts. It renders architecture useful in its normative functions, and it humanizes it. Some of the greatest furniture was designed by architects. Indeed, the reverse also is true. Robert Adam and Gerrit Rietveld, for example, provided the eighteenth and twentieth centuries respectively with seminal furnishings and buildings.

Apart from the heritage tying it to architecture, furniture has always been, and is, a freestanding art. And as such, it would in some senses be fair to say that as an art, it lost ground in the twentieth century. The loss was at least in part due to one of the most dominant philosophical positions on the production of modernist furniture, which insisted on focusing not on furniture as art, as a vehicle for individual and cultural expression, but on furniture as purely mechanical, as equipment for use in the domestic and work environments. Indeed, the whole world of ornamentation and decoration—as art—came under challenge in this period, and as such, furniture came under pressure to simplify its role in our culture.

It is in this regard that the role of the modern crafts has been vital. From the later nineteenth century, generation after generation of modern craftspeople struggled, against the functionalist trend, to maintain the possibility that furniture could be a medium for individual expression, as well as the conduit through which the history of furniture, and the people who created it, could be continually revisited. From the arts and crafts movement and the masters of art nouveau and the secession, through to the masters of the studio crafts movements of the later twentieth century, furniture has continued to serve as a medium for intellectual and emotional expression and as a vehicle for cultural memory.

I would say that after phenomenal development through the first half of the twentieth century, by 1970, America had become a dominant nation across much of craft practice. American ceramics and glass artists, for example, were absolutely core to the efflorescence of those practices into a sculptural, expressive, and dramatic new tradition. American jewelers took full part in the dramatic evolution that saw jewelry become a conceptually driven discourse. And fiber artists pushed textile art into wholly new realms.

The furniture world was, on the whole, less cohesive and dramatic than these other genres and unfolded in a more subtle and complex way. It never had a movement. There is no one cohesive school or intellectual thrust in American furniture making, but rather, a number of seams of activity. Some makers remained broadly loyal to what might be termed the arts-and-crafts tradition, at its most powerful in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century; others effectively combined wood carving with furniture to forge a more sculptural practice; some used popular and folk imagery to make witty and cryptic comments on life; some blended in with mainstream design; and yet others developed conceptual approaches that questioned the very nature of furniture itself. It has been a rich diversity, and one that can be collectively assessed only with rigorous and patient scholarship. That is where this book comes in.

The Renwick Gallery’s studio furniture collection is a vital resource for the study and appreciation of American furniture. The eighty-four examples catalogued here constitute one of the most important American collections. Like all museum collections, and of course museums themselves, there is often little in the way of logic in the initial founding impetus. Vacated by the U.S. Court of Claims, the historic building that is now the Renwick Gallery lay vacant until First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy advocated a viable program and purpose for it. The government then transferred the building to the Smithsonian Institution.

When the Renwick Gallery was formed in 1972, it had no mandate to build a collection. Beginning in the mid-1980s, under the leadership of National Museum of American Art Director Charles Eldredge, the Renwick formed a policy to collect. From then on, it did so with intelligence and gusto.

Studio Furniture is a seminal contribution to furniture literature. It seems to me that above all else it does three things. First, it is an absolutely vital resource for the history of modern American furniture makers. The biographies and bibliographies of these central makers provide the student, collector, and educated layperson with the foundation for study. Second, taken as a whole, the volume is a concise history of modern American furniture practice. Third, the catalogue is a brilliant institutional history of American craft.

Modern American furniture makers have been open and experimental with regard to diverse materials. Many practice with metal, fiber, plastic, and found materials. Nevertheless, at the core of the furniture genre is wood. And in the twentieth century, that has been the single greatest contribution of the American masters. In a nation blessed with extraordinary supplies of the raw material and émigrés from rich furniture-making countries, the environment for a continuing tradition of expressive wooden furniture was always here. Accordingly, as these pages reveal, the tradition of wooden furniture has been maintained and pushed into wholly new terrain. The range is remarkable—from the raw expressiveness of Garry Knox Bennett to the breathtaking exactitude of Wendell Castle; from the virtuosity of John Cederquist to the eclectic, adjusted traditionalism of Daniel Mack; from the classic seriousness of Wharton Esherick to the subversiveness of Jacob Cress.

Perhaps this returns me to my earlier point. Furniture is simultaneously the most functional and physical of craft media, but it is also redolent with conceptual, historiographic, and individual narrative. Perhaps more than any other group internationally during the last fifty years, the American artists chronicled in Studio Furniture have reminded us such narratives always have been part of the furniture universe. We owe them much.

Paul Greenhalgh

Director, The Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington, D.C.

Acknowledgments

THE AUTHOR’S NAME APPEARS ON THE TITLE PAGE, but no book is possible without the help of countless friends and colleagues who contribute in both small and large ways to make it a reality. First and foremost is Charlene Johnson, who completed the daunting task of compiling the bibliography and biographical sketches that bring to life each of the artists represented in the Renwick collection. As a student, collector, scholar, and studio artist in her own right, Johnson has been a constant advisor, reader, and friend without whom this project might never have been completed.

The research really began with my spring 2003 Studio Furniture class at the Smithsonian Institution/Parsons School of Design masters program in the decorative arts. Several of my students that semester interviewed artists in the Renwick collection about their work. The students included Christian Chute, Marcee Craighill, Samira Farmer, Kate Hughes, Pam Lict, Kate Livie, April Pride, Virginia Waring, and Betsy Davison. Davison and Allison Byrd completed similar assignments in subsequent classes. As part of an independent study project, Kyra Swanson identified all of the furniture makers who received National Endowment for the Humanities awards.

I am grateful to the James Renwick Alliance for awarding me a research fellowship in 2004 that allowed me to begin my study of the collection and for encouraging my work ever since. I am particularly grateful to past presidents John Kotely and Diane Grainer, and to former vice president Marc Grainer, for their unstinting support and advice. The fellowship allowed me to conduct telephone interviews with the artists, and that information forms the basis for the catalogue entries. Each artist generously reviewed my draft for accuracy.

I am particularly indebted to the staff of the Renwick Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) for the countless hours they have lavished on this project. Without the Renwick artist files, it would have been difficult to complete this book. The custodian of the invaluable records is Marguerite Hergesheimer, who tolerated repeated interruptions to provide details whenever I asked. Robyn Kennedy, the administrator of the Renwick, and her assistant, Rebecca Robinson, always were there to offer ongoing support and encouragement.

The manuscript benefited immeasurably from the diligent and careful editing by Tiffany Farrell, the finest editor with whom I have had the pleasure of working. The book is far better as a result of her hard work. Words are important, but the layout and design by Karen Siatras also is critical for understanding and appreciating the work. Richard Sorensen, the keeper of the images, also was indispensable in locating photography of the furniture. Much of the collection was expertly photographed by Bruce Miller, a project supported by a grant from the James Renwick Alliance. SAAM staff photographers Gene Young and Mildred Baldwin also provided stunning shots.

To Betsy Broun and Rachel Allen, the director and deputy director of SAAM, I extend special thanks for supporting this catalogue from the very beginning and making it happen. Having been personally involved with the Renwick from its early years, Broun offered many invaluable insights only first-hand experience could provide.

I want to especially thank the former curators-in-charge of the Renwick—Lloyd Herman, Michael Monroe, and Kenneth Trapp—and former curator Jeremy Adamson, for reading my manuscript and offering many helpful comments and suggestions that have enabled me to write an accurate and clear history of the collection.

Colleagues at other institutions graciously provided lists of studio furniture in their charge as a comparison to the Renwick collection. The colleagues included Pat Warner at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Kristin Watts at the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina; and Thomas Michie at the Rhode Island School of Design.

Several gallery owners have provided much appreciated advice, including Louis Wexler of Wexler Gallery, Rick Snyderman of Snyderman Gallery in Philadelphia, and Vena Sengh at Sansar Gallery in Bethesda, Maryland. These longtime stalwarts in the field provided invaluable perspectives. Andrew Glasgow, the executive director of the Furniture Society, also offered continuing encouragement and support.

Finally, I am indebted to John Kelsey for introducing me to Fox Chapel Publishing and to Alan Giagnocavo, the president, both of whom have been enthusiastic about Studio Furniture from the beginning.

Throughout it all, my wife, Toby, showed remarkable forbearance as I struggled with the manuscript and the publication process. She was even persuaded to read a few drafts and offered many helpful suggestions.

I am encouraged that a new generation of collectors has begun to discover the work of studio furniture makers. Although my daughter, Molly, leads a peripatetic life in the field of international public health, she appreciates fine craftsmanship and design. My son, Michael, a university chemistry professor, has begun to furnish his home with studio furniture. Even my granddaughters, Madeline and Emily, seem to delight in our fledgling studio furniture collection. It is to my family and the new generation of studio furniture enthusiasts that this book is dedicated.

John Eric Byers, Hat Box Chest (detail); see page 45.

BUILDING THE COLLECTION

THE EIGHTY-FOUR PIECES OF STUDIO FURNITURE OWNED BY THE RENWICK GALLERY OF THE Smithsonian American Art Museum constitute one of the largest assemblages of American studio furniture in the nation. Three former administrators—Lloyd Herman, Michael Monroe, and Kenneth Trapp—amassed a seminal collection that samples studio furniture’s great diversity. From the carefully crafted stools of Tage Frid to the art deco chest painted by Rob Womack, from the one-of-a-kind Ghost Clock sculpture by Wendell Castle, to the limited production stool by David Ebner, the collection documents the astonishing variety of the American studio furniture movement. From first-generation makers such as Wharton Esherick and Sam Maloof, who emphasized technique and the beauty of wood, to second-generation artists like John Cederquist and Alphonse Mattia, who transformed their furniture into narrative and sculpture, the field is well covered.

Lloyd Herman and the Nascent Studio Furniture Collection

LIKE THE MODERN CRAFT MOVEMENT ITSELF, THE RENWICK GALLERY IS RELATIVELY YOUNG. It traces its formation to the 1960s, when the U.S. Court of Claims had vacated the historic building, named for its nineteenth-century architect James Renwick. Proposals to demolish the building followed. However, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, dedicated to the restoration of Lafayette Park and its surrounding buildings, advocated for its preservation. Ultimately, the architectural gem was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1965 and became part of the National Collection of Fine Arts (NCFA).

Lloyd E. Herman, the director of the Office of Exposition Hall Programs, the short-lived name given to the changing exhibition program in the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building in the late 1960s, had written a memo recommending that the newly acquired Renwick be turned into “The Renwick Design Center.”1 Taking up Herman’s idea, Dillon Ripley, then secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, persuaded President Lyndon Johnson that the Renwick be used “as a gallery of arts, crafts, and design.”2 In 1971, Herman was appointed the Renwick’s first director. Although he had no formal training in craft or design, few other museum professionals had a craft background at that time because of the paucity of academic programs in the field.

After a renovation designed by renowned architect Hugh Jacobsen, the Renwick Gallery opened to the public in January 1972 with eight inaugural exhibitions. Herman himself curated the primary show, Woodenworks: Furniture Objects by Five Contemporary Craftsmen, which featured Arthur Espenet Carpenter, Wendell Castle, Wharton Esherick, Sam Maloof, and George Nakashima. Woodenworks showcased fifty pieces by leaders of the first generation of studio furniture makers. All of the artists would subsequently figure prominently in the gallery’s permanent collection.3 Before he retired in 1986, Herman mounted more than one hundred exhibitions, almost one-third featuring individual craft artists both American and foreign. At the outset, however, forming a permanent collection was not part of the plan.4

Unaware the Renwick Gallery was created as a venue for temporary exhibits, private donors occasionally offered the museum craft objects. Herman dutifully referred donors to the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York City or to the Ceramics and Glass Department of the National Museum of American History, neither of which was prepared to accept such pieces. Herman and Joshua C. Taylor, the director of the National Collection of Fine Arts, finally decided the objects were too important to pass up, so Herman began accepting a few. The NCFA, of which the Renwick was a part, had already acquired several craft objects even before the Renwick opened, most from the touring exhibition Objects: USA, a show sponsored by the S. C. Johnson & Son Company that premiered at NCFA in 1968. When the exhibition ended after an international tour, the company distributed the objects to various museums including NCFA. Starting with a small core, Herman added to the craft collection on a limited basis into the 1980s.

An important early exhibition that contained studio furniture was Craft Multiples, mounted in 1975 following a national competition. Herman’s idea was to feature alternatives to unique sculptural objects. He chose works created in editions of at least ten that also appealed to the spirit and enriched daily life. Shinichi Miyazaki, who submitted a chair for the show, summed up the ideals of many craftsmen when he said, “When skills are applied to the proper materials, the result is unique and artistic to a degree impossible to obtain by mass production. And when we use such furniture, the craftsman’s joy in creation is somehow communicated to us and we partake of it.”5 In the end, a three-person jury selected 133 objects from about five thousand applicants. Craft Multiples traveled around the country for three years after closing at the Renwick. A $40,000 grant from Susan and Timothy Mellon enabled Herman to purchase about half of the objects from this exhibition. Of the sixty- three objects acquired, nine furniture pieces formed the basis of a fledgling studio furniture collection.

Several of the inaugural pieces were submitted by craftsmen who would later become leaders in the field. Objects included a music stand by Wendell Castle, a wall unit by John Cederquist, and a stool by David Ebner. Castle’s music stand represents the early work of a craftsman who went on to reinvent himself numerous times over his career. Without the provenance, it would be impossible to know simply by looking that the wall unit was created by John Cederquist. Soon after making the cabinet, Cederquist moved from art-deco-inspired casework to his familiar trompe l’oeil creations. Ebner’s stool was the prototype for what soon emerged as his signature piece, one he produces in bronze as well as wood.

After the Craft Multiples acquisitions, Herman added only three more pieces of studio furniture during his directorship. The 1950 desk by Wharton Esherick was perhaps the most significant, even though in the 1970s, Esherick’s importance in the field was not widely appreciated. Herman actually used it as his desk. Now, however, Esherick is acknowledged as the patriarch of the studio furniture movement. The second piece, a chair—really a fiber sculpture—donated by the artist Norma Minkowitz, represented an important precursor to trends in the studio furniture field in the 1980s and 1990s, when many makers began to produce pieces that were more artistic than functional. Just before his retirement, Herman acquired the signature Throne Chair by Robert Whitley, whose Windsor chair had already been acquired from the Craft Multiples show.

After he left, Herman donated two notable pieces to the museum. When Woodenworks closed, Herman attempted to buy George Nakashima’s Conoid Chair for his personal collection, but the artist insisted on giving it to him instead. Soon after Nakashima died in 1990, Herman presented Conoid Chair to the museum. Herman also had bought a prototype, production model of the Molded Plywood Chair by Washington, D.C.-area artist and industrial designer Peter Danko. In 1995, after Danko had achieved national prominence, Herman donated that piece to the museum as well. The gift honored Michael Monroe, Herman’s former curator and his successor as chief, upon Monroe’s retirement.

The Renwick Gallery Becomes the Nation’s Craft Museum

BY THE MID-1980S, IT BECAME CLEAR THAT COLLECTING CRAFT OBJECTS WOULD FORM an integral part of the museum’s mission. At that time, several events resulted in the Renwick’s focusing its mission on collecting and promoting craft. When the National Collection of Fine Arts was renamed the National Museum of American Art (NMAA) by an Act of Congress in 1980, its focus became solely American art. Even though the Renwick’s early exhibitions were international in scope, its nascent collection had already been limited to American craft. Charles Eldredge, who became director of the NMAA in 1982 after the unexpected death of Taylor a year earlier, codified the emphasis on American art in the NMAA and on American craft at the Renwick. Eldredge also decided the Renwick Gallery should include all of the same programs as other curatorial departments, including exhibitions, research and publications, public programs, and collections. The last element marked a dramatic policy shift, one that charged the Renwick’s curators with acquiring the very best examples of American craft for the permanent collection.

In the late 1980s, as the new acquisition policy got underway, a support group helped fund purchases. The James Renwick Collectors Alliance (renamed the James Renwick Alliance in 1987) had been created in 1982. Moved by Lloyd Herman’s comment that he was having trouble finding funds for public programs, Charles Gailis—then a trustee of the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine—facilitated the establishment of an ad hoc committee of local collectors and others interested in craft to investigate establishing a support group. The by-laws charged the new organization to support programs at the Renwick Gallery and also “to establish permanent collections of American crafts of artistic significance and superior workmanship.”6 At first, the group wanted to support American crafts on a national basis, but eventually it became committed to supporting the Renwick exclusively. Beginning in 1985, the Renwick Alliance focused on raising money for acquisitions. In 1987, members were granted the right to vote on new acquisitions.

However, by the late 1980s, the Renwick faced an uncertain future. When Herman retired in 1986, the position of director was abolished because it was determined there should not be two directors within the same organization. About the same time, Robert McCormick Adams, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, mused in public that every aspect of the Smithsonian, including the purpose and use of the Renwick, should be open to question. The statement unleashed a flurry of suggestions. Some in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History wanted to take over the Renwick as a concert hall and gallery for the historical musical instrument collection. Because of its proximity to the White House, others proposed an exhibition space for objects relating to the First Ladies. Still others wanted to commandeer the museum to serve as a showcase for the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. Many advocates within the NMAA and the Renwick Gallery, including Elizabeth Broun, who had been NMAA’s assistant director and chief curator since 1983, lobbied tenaciously to protect and promote the fledgling craft museum. In addition, the Renwick Alliance mobilized support. As a result, Secretary Adams authorized a Visiting Craft Committee to make recommendations on the future of the Renwick.

The committee not only advised that the Renwick should continue to exhibit American craft, but also that it should build a nationally recognized craft collection representing the best works and makers in the nation. It also recommended the curator-in-charge, the new name for the administrator, should report to the director of NMAA rather than to the NMAA’s chief curator, as had been the case previously. The committee went as far as suggesting the Renwick be established as a separate museum, but recognized budgetary and political considerations made that impractical at the time.

Acquisition of Studio Furniture Icons

THE MOST NOTICEABLE CHANGE AS A RESULT OF THE VISITING CRAFT COMMITTEE’S recommendations was Michael W. Monroe, who became the new curator-in-charge in 1986, began to develop a systematic collecting policy. A graduate of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Monroe had served as curator of the Renwick under Herman for twelve years and previously as a director of a university art gallery. Monroe began to identify important objects for the collection and cultivated the support of the Renwick Alliance.

Meanwhile, Charles Eldredge at the NMAA arranged, against all odds, to include the Renwick in the Smithsonian-wide Collections Acquisition Program. Consequently, in 1988, the gallery received a quarter of a million dollars for acquisitions, provided that half of the funds were matched by outside benefactors. Eldredge’s initiative provided a tremendous windfall, as excellent craft objects could be acquired for reasonable prices. When Elizabeth Broun became NMAA’s director in 1989, she continued to support the Renwick with acquisition funds. The Renwick Alliance enthusiastically answered appeals to match the challenge grant. Benefiting from the efforts, Monroe was able to add twenty-two objects to the studio furniture collection. Five of these were purchased jointly by the Smithsonian and the Renwick Alliance.

________________Lloyd E. Herman directed the Renwick Gallery from 1971 until 1986.

________________He was succeeded by curator-in-charge Michael W. Monroe.

After succeeding Herman, Monroe did not initially focus on studio furniture. However, early in his tenure at the museum he witnessed a confluence of maturing young talent and extraordinary ideas—a contagious energy. He then felt a sense of urgency to capture that energy. Monroe recognized that following the 1972 Woodenworks show and the establishment of the Program in Artisanry at Boston University in 1975, interest in studio furniture had blossomed. He wanted to capture the possibilities inherent in the moment, while it was still possible to acquire significant pieces by emerging artists. Having seen in other craft fields the increasing inaccessibility of works by leading artists as their reputations soared, Monroe was determined to collect such pieces of studio furniture before they became unattainable.

Knowing storage space was at a premium, he sought to acquire few but choice pieces. With a list of important makers in his pocket, he assiduously perused craft literature and frequented galleries in search of the most representative examples. Also in the back of Monroe’s mind was the quest for diversity in both artists and forms. If all the collection were to be displayed, he wanted to see more than just chairs, for example. Moreover, he did not feel comfortable commissioning work because the result might not truly reflect the artist’s full potential.

In 1989, Monroe added the most impressive object to the collection, Wendell Castle’s Ghost Clock, one of the few works that has been continuously displayed in the permanent gallery. Created by arguably the foremost craftsman in the field, the sculpture represented a turning point in Castle’s career. The piece, Ghost Clock, had initially starred in the Masterpieces of Time exhibition, which debuted at the Taft Museum in Cincinnati in the fall of 1985. Alexander F. Milliken, who promoted Wendell Castle’s work during the 1980s, had suggested the project to Castle several years earlier. Masterpieces of Time, featuring thirteen clocks, then traveled to the Alexander F. Milliken Gallery in New York before opening at the Renwick in December 1985 for a four-month run.7

________________Kenneth Trapp followed Michael Monroe as the Renwick Gallery’s curator-in-charge beginning in 1995.

The exhibition was Castle’s first body of work that represented a more conceptual and sculptural approach. For Monroe, the clocks epitomized the blurring of the traditional distinction between craft and sculpture, a trend that swept the studio furniture field in the 1980s and 1990s. Although Monroe coveted the clock from the moment he saw it, it took four years of torturous negotiations before the deal was concluded. In the end, Monroe felt it was one of his most rewarding acquisitions. Along with Albert Paley’s