Before Wendell Castle came along there was a clear line drawn in the sand. In the art world; art is art, sculpture is art, furniture can be art, but it could not be sculpture. No matter how hard different artists tried, sculpture and furniture did not mix. It had been a goal of the studio-furniture movement to cross the fine and arbitrary line between fine-art and fine-furniture. Two methods were available to cross this boundary. The first of which was to brow-beat and convince critics and viewers that your furniture is art. All this does is to alienate those who would view and support that artist.

Castle pioneered, was to have it first viewed as sculpture and then after careful viewing let such art be viewed as functional furnishings.

Castle started a whole movement of such. By crossing the furniture/art boundary, he in fact actually broke commonalities of thought. Ending many past status quos, no longer can one say that is art, or that is just for function. It brings about a whole new chapter in artistry. Who says a battered helmet from World War Two, with its random patterns of dents and its tapestry of scratches and welts, isn’t art in itself. Wendell made all people- art critics and laymen stand back and rethink what they previously cognisized their own mindless preconceptions of art and life. To recognize that what the mind can perceive and think of can be brought into being by skilled artisans. What was held as true can be put into question and what is agreed to be false may in turn be true. Especially now in the world of sculpture, a place that Mr. Castle was instrumental in helping create. “A lot of what happens in my work is a kind

Some topics in this essay:
Wendell Castle, World War, Wendell Castle’s, , sculpture castle, art furniture, sculpture art, art sculpture, furniture art,