BY JENNIFER CROWLEY
Visionary, iconic, pioneering. These words have been used time and time again to describe the body of work by renowned Scottsville artist and longtime resident Wendell Castle. Castle, the famed designer, woodworker and recognized “father of the art furniture movement,” died at his home on January 20th at the age of 85 following a brief illness.
The bespectacled Castle worked with mediums including wood, plastic and concrete. His creations have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC and The Victoria Albert Museum in London. Castle’s final gallery showing, Wendell Castle Remastered, was held at Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) in December 2017. The exhibition was one the artist’s largest, featuring more than 35 of his works – each digitally crafted.
Part of Castle’s seemingly effortless salience is rooted in the ease with which he adopted new tools and adapted to new mediums. A first tool of his trade was a chainsaw, earning him an early reputation as a rule breaker. Always one to push the design envelope, it’s not surprising that in recent years Castle gravitated towards emerging innovations including a 5,000 pound milling robotic (“Mr. Chips”) and three-dimensional technologies. It was the works inspired by these more modern tools that his final show featured.
Castle was born in Emporia, Kansas, in 1932. His mother was a teacher, his father, a banker. As a child Castle had to overcome dyslexia; he has been quoted as saying that as a young student his only interests were drawing and daydreaming. Little did he know that those two hobbies would eventually drive Castle towards unchartered design territory: art furniture.
After pursuing a degree in industrial design at the University of Kansas, Castle focused his graduate studies in sculpture, which became central to his early artistic endeavors. In the early 1960s Castle moved to Rochester and started teaching at the School of American Craftsmen at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Castle was an artist-in-residence at RIT the time of his passing.
Castle’s work fascinated the worlds of arts and crafts because no one had dared blur those lines before. An April 1979 People Magazine article on his rise to artistic fame summarized Castle’s unique talent which was capturing the attention of sophisticated art enthusiasts and collectors (including Jim Henson of Muppets fame). The article opened with this paragraph: “Want a nude woman on your sofa? Just call Wendell Castle. He can provide one for a mere $28,000. If the woman seems wooden and attached (literally) and the price steep, it’s because she’s hand-carved and this is art.”
Castle’s most famous piece is arguably his 1985 sculpture, Ghost Clock, borne out of bleached Honduras mahogany. Still on display at The Smithsonian American Art Museum, the piece continues to beguile visitors who are often shocked that they are looking at masterfully carved wood and not a white cotton sheet covering a clock. Over the years Castle has also received widespread acclaim for his “10 Adopted Rules of Thumb,” a personal set of design commandments that many up-and-coming artists have adopted as their own. Number one on the list? “If you are in love with an idea you are no judge of its beauty or value.”
Castle and his wife Nancy Jurs, herself an acclaimed artist and sculptor, called the small village of Scottsville home. Their studio on Maple Street, not far from their house, is where Castle spent considerable time. Neighbors on the street fondly recounted his friendliness, always waving hello as he passed by in one his vintage sport cars. Castle was a lover and collector of classic cars and often repaired or rebuilt them with his own hands.
For area residents interested in learning more about Castle’s work, his Unicorn Family cast-iron sculpture can be seen at the MAG’s Centennial Sculpture Park while other pieces including Music Rack, Dr. Caligari, and Lord Dragonfly Chair are on permanent display at the MAG.
In addition to his wife of 46 years, Nancy, Castle leaves behind daughter Alison Castle of Brooklyn; a stepson, Bryon Jurs of Scottsville; a brother; a sister; and two grandchildren.
