Wendell Castle, who turned furniture into art, dies in Scottsville at 85
Steve OrrWendell Castle, a visionary woodworker, furniture-maker and sculptor who became one of the most acclaimed artists ever to call Rochester home, has died at the age of 85.
Mr. Castle died late Saturday afternoon at his estate near the Genesee River in Scottsville, according to an announcement by Rochester Institute of Technology, where he was an artist in residence.
Mr. Castle suffered from leukemia and had been in and out of the hospital over the last two months. On Friday, with the end near, he returned home. He died the next day with his wife, Nancy Jurs, and many family members and friends in attendance.
"He was a man of dignity and grace until the very end," said Sebby Wilson Jacobson, a former Democrat and Chronicle arts writer and editor who is a close family friend.
In more than a half-century of work, Mr. Castle melded furniture with art, creating provocative tables, chairs, clocks and other objects that bemused, surprised and baffled those who saw them. He placed form above function, and frequently shifted styles and genres. Of late, he had been sculpting furniture with a robot.
"Both of us, we would kind of get into a groove for a while, and then something bubbles up in the background and takes over," said Jurs, an acclaimed sculptor who met Mr. Castle when she was a student at RIT. "He was always moving forward, never moving back. He was interested in the next piece."
Mr. Castle's work — best-known in wood but also plastic, concrete, bronze — is exhibited in galleries and displayed in museums worldwide.
His Scottsville workshop, which employs 10 people, produces fine art pieces. A separate workshop turns out furniture that is sold through a handful of select dealers in the United States and Canada.
Mr. Castle has been honored by the Smithsonian Institution, the American Craft Council, the American Craft Museum, the Brooklyn Museum of Art and countless other institutions.
When the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester opened a major retrospective of Castle's work in October, museum director Jonathan Binstock said the Scottsville artist was "of international importance."
"There are many great artists working throughout the world, but very few of these have defined an entire genre or category of art. Wendell, having pioneered the concept of art furniture, is one of these rare artists, which makes him globally significant," Binstock said.
"It is a historical moment for the museum and its longstanding relationship with the artist, and a rare opportunity to share works of art with regional audiences that have been seen internationally but never in Rochester."
The exhibition was extended by popular demand and only closed two weeks ago.
MAG exhibit honors Wendell Castle, still inspired after nearly 60 years
Jurs, speaking to a reporter Sunday, remembered Mr. Castle as "soft-spoken, strong, dedicated" and, a good deal of the time, quite shy.
But he was very much a part of the world around him. "We think of so many artists as being solitary beings that are removed from the world. But he was very engaged in every part of life," Jacobson said. "He had a wonderful family, he was a loyal friend, he loved his property."
Mr. Castle's son, Bryon Castle, an artist, is in charge of the finishes on the furniture created in the Scottsville workshop.
His daughter, Alison Castle, an author, editor and filmmaker who lives in Brooklyn, was a frequent visitor with her two children. She is just finishing a documentary film about her father. She uploaded a five-minute teaser of the full-length documentary in 2016.
A Portrait of the Artist as a Very Young Octogenarian | American Craft Council
Wendell Castle: Shifting Shapes and Breaking Rules | American Craft Council
As Mr. Castle lay on his deathbed Saturday afternoon, John Dady of Rochester's well-known Dady Brothers, an old friend, came by. He picked up Mr. Castle's guitar and sang some of his favorite songs, among them "Ain't She Sweet" and Woody Guthrie's "Do Re Mi."
"That was the first song Wendell ever sang to me, in 1967," Jurs recalled.
Mr. Castle collected vintage cars, sang and played guitar and, in his time, was a highly competitive tennis player. He pressed ahead with his outside interests and his art as long as he could.
"Up until the last few weeks, Wendell was still talking about and looking forward to returning to his studio and creating more furniture sculpture," Jacobson said.
"He had left behind so many sketches and models for future pieces that it will keep his studio busy for many years to come," she said.
Gallery of Innovators | RIT Innovation Hall of Fame
A professor who is the chair of RIT's Industrial Design program, Josh Owen, who worked closely with Mr. Castle as both a colleague and friend, added that his legacy will continue on campus, too.
In an email to the Democrat and Chronicle, Owen said that Mr. Castle was an integral presence in the RIT design community and a form of inspiration to students pursuing creative work.
"Wendell’s impact has been substantial and broad. He has been a juror for student competitions, a faculty member teaching courses on history, theory and praxis and has showed first-year students how to draw," said Owen. "Most recently, RIT Shop One Director Wendy Marks curated an exhibition on Wendell’s drawings that revealed the process behind his project development, which offered remarkable insights to our community and beyond."
According to Owen, Mr. Castle's work has also served as inspiration for a recent industrial design community project to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the RIT campus in Henrietta. Owen said that hundreds of members of the design community came together just last week for the project, which will utilize an ancient oak tree that once flanked the entrance to the campus before it blew down in last year's windstorm. The project, which pays tribute to Mr. Castle, will be revealed next year.
Wendell Castle | Corning Museum of Glass
A native of Kansas, Mr. Castle moved to the Rochester area in 1962 to join the faculty at RIT, and never left the area. He later operated his own workshop here and was on the faculty of The College at Brockport.
Before he was lured here to teach in RIT's furniture-design department, Mr. Castle had been living in New York City, where he sculpted and painted. He had done very little with furniture, but viewed the move as an opportunity.
"I’ve had the same goal in mind from Day One, when I decided in 1962 to give up pure sculpture," he told Democrat and Chronicle arts writer Ron Netsky in a 1986 interview. "I decided early on that if furniture was made with similar kinds of forms as sculpture, that would open up a whole new territory for furniture and make it closer to an art form."
In addition to his wife, son and daughter, Mr. Castle is survived by a brother, Wayne (Margaret) Castle of Kansas; a sister, Nancy (Gerry) Benedict of Colorado; and two grandchildren, Arabella and Archibald Staropoli.
Funeral or memorial arrangements are pending.
Includes reporting by staff writer Lauren Peace.
