Date & Time
3:00pm EDT - 4:30pm EDT
About This Event
As a part of Jack Lenor Larsen’s collection, LongHouse holds one of the largest collections of works by artist-designer Wharton Esherick (1887 – 1970), including hand-crafted pieces of furniture, sculpture, and woodblock prints.
Based in his handmade studio in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Esherick turned against the hard-edged machine aesthetic of the modern movement and carved sensually curving shapes, turning practical objects—everything from spoons, chairs, tables and staircases--into freeform expressions of sculptural beauty. Considered the "dean of American craftsmen” and father of the American Studio Craft Movement, Esherick was a foundational influence on a younger generation of wood artisans including the likes of George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Emil Milan, and Wendell Castle (1932-2018) whose practice was perhaps closest in spirit to Esherick’s organic philosophy of design: that a natural material like wood should dictate its own form.
Wharton Esherick (1887- 1970) was the quintessential woodblock printer and premier furniture maker of the 20th century. Stunningly novel, his furniture stands the test of time: handshaped and free-form, it’s curvilinear, modern and pure. With his keen eye for design, Larsen began collecting Esherick’s work, having established a close friendship with the crafstman since 1952. This lead to acquisitions of such substance and depth that the LongHouse Collection of Esherick’s furniture is considered most important after the holdings at the Esherick Museum. It includes both 1939 World’s Fair tables, a monumental portal or Arch from the Curtis Bok house, a rare bench of painted softwood, tables, a music stand, library ladder, and cubist mirror.
Alastair Gordon’s talk will place Esherick’s work into historical context as an idiosyncratic, hand-shaped, and deeply personal offshoot of American modernism. He will discuss how Castle, as heir apparent, perpetuated and expanded upon Esherick’s legacy with a collection of stack-laminate pieces that completely erased the line between furniture and sculpture.
Gordon wrote a 239-page monograph “Wendell Castle: Wandering Forms, Works from 1959–1979” (Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2012) in conjunction with a 2012 retrospective of Castle’s work at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
images, l-r: Wharton Esherick (1887- 1970) and Wendell Castle (1932-2018), courtesy of Alastair Gordon.
This program will be held on the final day to visit the exhibition Things That Look Like Magic: Cheryl R. Riley and Wharton Esherick. Featuring collected works from LongHouse, the late Judith Jameson, and Cheryl Riley, it pairs Cheryl R. Riley’s work with Wharton Esherick’s, reflecting LongHouse’s tradition of reinterpreting its collection through dialogue across generations.
Things That Look Like Magic is on view through September 6, Saturday and Sunday, 1:00-3:00 pm, with admission to LongHouse.
Conceived and guided by Glenn Adamson, LongHouse Curator-at-Large, with curatorial assistance from Carrie Rebora Barratt, the exhibition was supported by a generous grant from Barbara Tober and the Acronym Foundation.
About This Event
As a part of Jack Lenor Larsen’s collection, LongHouse holds one of the largest collections of works by artist-designer Wharton Esherick (1887 – 1970), including hand-crafted pieces of furniture, sculpture, and woodblock prints.
Based in his handmade studio in Malvern, Pennsylvania, Esherick turned against the hard-edged machine aesthetic of the modern movement and carved sensually curving shapes, turning practical objects—everything from spoons, chairs, tables and staircases--into freeform expressions of sculptural beauty. Considered the "dean of American craftsmen” and father of the American Studio Craft Movement, Esherick was a foundational influence on a younger generation of wood artisans including the likes of George Nakashima, Sam Maloof, Emil Milan, and Wendell Castle (1932-2018) whose practice was perhaps closest in spirit to Esherick’s organic philosophy of design: that a natural material like wood should dictate its own form.
Wharton Esherick (1887- 1970) was the quintessential woodblock printer and premier furniture maker of the 20th century. Stunningly novel, his furniture stands the test of time: handshaped and free-form, it’s curvilinear, modern and pure. With his keen eye for design, Larsen began collecting Esherick’s work, having established a close friendship with the crafstman since 1952. This lead to acquisitions of such substance and depth that the LongHouse Collection of Esherick’s furniture is considered most important after the holdings at the Esherick Museum. It includes both 1939 World’s Fair tables, a monumental portal or Arch from the Curtis Bok house, a rare bench of painted softwood, tables, a music stand, library ladder, and cubist mirror.
Alastair Gordon’s talk will place Esherick’s work into historical context as an idiosyncratic, hand-shaped, and deeply personal offshoot of American modernism. He will discuss how Castle, as heir apparent, perpetuated and expanded upon Esherick’s legacy with a collection of stack-laminate pieces that completely erased the line between furniture and sculpture.
Gordon wrote a 239-page monograph “Wendell Castle: Wandering Forms, Works from 1959–1979” (Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2012) in conjunction with a 2012 retrospective of Castle’s work at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
images, l-r: Wharton Esherick (1887- 1970) and Wendell Castle (1932-2018), courtesy of Alastair Gordon.
This program will be held on the final day to visit the exhibition Things That Look Like Magic: Cheryl R. Riley and Wharton Esherick. Featuring collected works from LongHouse, the late Judith Jameson, and Cheryl Riley, it pairs Cheryl R. Riley’s work with Wharton Esherick’s, reflecting LongHouse’s tradition of reinterpreting its collection through dialogue across generations.
Things That Look Like Magic is on view through September 6, Saturday and Sunday, 1:00-3:00 pm, with admission to LongHouse.
Conceived and guided by Glenn Adamson, LongHouse Curator-at-Large, with curatorial assistance from Carrie Rebora Barratt, the exhibition was supported by a generous grant from Barbara Tober and the Acronym Foundation.
Date & Time
3:00pm EDT - 4:30pm EDT