All Photos By Gail
Wendell Castle (1932 – 2018) was one of America’s most important contemporary furniture makers, with 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, Castle 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 the designer received the Brooklyn Museum/ Modernism Lifetime Achievement Award. The Nirvana Chair (2007) is described as a blue/purple, asymmetrical, biomorphic, molded, continuous contour fiberglass chair. The large deep/wide seat has a backwards-curving back and crest that flares out and back. The chair is a prototype and was a gift of the artist to the Brooklyn Museum in acknowledgment of their ongoing commitment to his work.
Nirvana Chair Installed Alongside a Tejo Remy Chest of Drawers and Cabinet By Ettore Sottsass.
