Speaking of Furniture: Conversations with 14 American Masters - Hardcover

Warren Eames Johnson; Bebe Pritam Johnson; Roger Holmes; Foreword By Edward S. Cooke Jr.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0988855712 ISBN 13: 9780988855717

Publisher: The Artist Book Foundation, 2013

Synopsis

An engaging history of studio furniture, Speaking of Furniture: Conversations with 14 American Masters is a fresh, interesting, and in-depth examination of the modus operandi of 14 accomplished-and diverse-furniture makers. The colourful, informative study includes expository conversations with James Krenov, Wendell Castle, Jere Osgood, Judy Kensley McKie, David Ebner, Richard Scott Newman, Hank Gilpin, Alphonse Mattia, John Dunnigan, Wendy Maruyama, James Schriber, Timothy S. Philbrick, Michael Hurwitz, and Thomas Hucker. The insightful interviews illuminate how these creative and gifted craftspeople arrived professionally and what their craft means to them individually. In his interpretive and elucidatory Foreword, Edward S. Cooke, Jr. maps out and gives the background on the parameters of the studio furniture world. Author and furniture maker Roger Holmes offers an insider's perspective on the art and craft of producing exquisite contemporary furniture in his conversational Introduction and maintains, "Art or craft, this is very personal work." This elegant presentation skilfully sheds light on the thought processes and techniques of a celebrated and exceptional gathering of studio furniture makers who are as unique as they are stellar. As sculptor and furniture designer Wendell Castle remarks, 'What I admired was that...fine art and craft were the same thing.'

About this title

Review:

Speaking of Furniture presents insightful interviews between gallery owners Bebe Pritam Johnson and Warren Eames Johnson and 14 master furniture makers they have represented-- all core, second-generation figures in the scantily examined American Studio Furniture movement. Dating from 1991, the transcripts focus on each designer's biography and reasons for entering te field; problems delayed publication, but each interview contains a coda updating the subject's professional views in 2011. Each designer considers whether furniture making is art, prompting one to seek radically new forms and concepts; or a craft, directing one to produce utilitarian objects consistent with prototypical forms. While their viewpoints vary, the subjects selected retain homogeneous characteristics, lacking much diversity of race, gender, or geography... This book provides excellent insight into a little-explored field.--A.R Michelson "CHOICE "

About the Author:

Based in East Hampton, New York, Pritam & Eames is associated with the finest work in American furniture making since 1981. As the country's oldest established gallery connected with the American studio furniture movement, they represent a distinguished group of artist-craftspeople. Edward S. Cooke, Jr. is the Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts in the Department of the History of Art at Yale University. He has served as director of the Yale Center for the Study of American Art and Material Culture since 1992 and served as the Chair of the department from 2000 to 2006. Roger Holmes, author and furniture maker, manages a workshop in Lincoln, NE, where he combines traditional handwork and contemporary technology. Author of The Woodworker's Companion, he has been an editor for Fine Woodworking magazine and has written extensively on furniture and furniture making.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Artist Book Foundation
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0988855712
• ISBN 13: 9780988855717
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336