"Nirvana" Armchair
Decorative Arts and Design
Wendell Castle, one of America’s most important contemporary furniture makers, has had several distinct stylistic phases in his career. At first he employed both exotic and native American woods to produce furniture characterized by biomorphic forms and attenuated surrealism. By the 1960s, he had begun experimenting with plastic and fiberglass to create seamless organic designs. In the 1980s, he became fascinated with Post-Modernism and produced highly architectural, polychromatic designs. In 2007 he received the Brooklyn Museum/Modernism Lifetime Achievement Award. The Nirvana chair was a gift of the artist in acknowledgment of the Museum’s ongoing commitment to his work.
MEDIUM
Fiberglass
DATES
2007
DIMENSIONS
62 3/8 x 33 5/8 x 33 3/4 in. (158.4 x 85.4 x 85.7 cm) (show scale)
MARKINGS
Impressed and colored red/pink in script under front of seat: "Castle/ 07/m"
COLLECTIONS
Decorative Arts and Design
ACCESSION NUMBER
2008.78
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the artist
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Fiberglass blue/purple, asymmetrical, biomorphic, molded, continuous contour fiberglass chair. Large deep wide seat with backwards curving back and crest that flares out and back. Proper right front: flattened rounded arch shaped armrest beneath which is a truncated, torpedo shape leg. Proper left front: thick torpedo shaped canted leg protrudes through extreme proper left of chair. Center back: truncated, slightly canted torpedo shaped leg.
Condition: protoype, unused.
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Wendell Castle (American, 1932â2018). "Nirvana" Armchair, 2007. Fiberglass, 62 3/8 x 33 5/8 x 33 3/4 in. (158.4 x 85.4 x 85.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the artist, 2008.78. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2008.78_PS2.jpg)
EDITION
Edition: 1/4 artist's proofs, edition of 8
IMAGE
overall, 2008.78_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2009
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RIGHTS STATEMENT
Creative Commons-BY
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