Flat Top Desk, 1929 and 1962, Walnut and padauk, Flat Top Desk Chair, 1929, Walnut, padauk and laced leather seat, Flat Top Desk Figure, 1929, Bronze cast of cocobolo original
“Head of Dreiser”, ca.1927, Pine- This is a portrait of writer Theodore Dreiser who Esherick met in 1924 through the Hedgerow Theatre. This was a rough, geometric sketch for a finished mahogany piece.
“Self Portrait”, 1919, Oil on canvas
The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick, on view at Brandywine Museum of Art, presents a wonderful look at the artist’s varied work from throughout his career.
From the museum-
This exhibition explores the interdisciplinary creativity of Wharton Esherick (1887-1970), the famed American artist best known as the father of the Studio Furniture Movement.
Esherick considered his hillside home and studio, now the Wharton Esherick Museum (WEM), the best representation of his iconoclastic vision, calling it “an autobiography in three dimensions.” Built between 1926 and 1966, his unconventional escape on the verdant slopes of Valley Forge Mountain houses almost 3000 iconic works of art from across Esherick’s seven decades of artistic practice.
The Crafted World brings selections from this rich and rarely loaned collection to a broader public, including many objects never before seen except in Esherick’s home and studio. Detailing the artist’s career from his early woodcut illustrations for books by members of the avant-garde literati to his revolutionary reimagining of furniture forms as organic sculpture, works will be presented in thematic vignettes that invite visitors into Esherick’s story and bring the essence of his creative world into the gallery.
Below are a few more selections.
“Drop Leaf Desk”, 1927
“Hedgerow Theatre Lobby Stair Model”, 1934, Walnut; “Spiral Staircase Model”, 1963,Pine; “Bok House Chimney Stair Model”, 1937
From the museum about the staircase models above-
Esherick made numerous objects centering on the twist or spiral to represent natural growth. He returned to this form in models for staircase commissions for the Bok House- in which the spiral is created through gradual shifts in the shape and width of each step- and for the Hedgerow Theatre– which features a staircase like the Studio’s that revolves around a center post.
“Moonlight on Alabama Pines”,1919-20, Oil on canvas, carved wood frame with metallic paint
Alabama Pine woodblock, 1929
“Oblivion” 1934, Walnut
About the sculpture above, Oblivion, from the museum-
Moved by the emotion and physicality of actors, Esherick spent many hours in the balcony of the Hedgerow Theatre, in nearby Rose Valley, sketching performers, and many more hours designing stage sets, props, posters, and other visual elements for their productions. Oblivion was inspired by the passionate embrace of two actors in The Son of Perdition, a play by Lynn Riggs. This organic, fluid sculpture offers an exaggerated rendering of emotion as two intertwined bodies, carved from a single log, seem to softly dissolve into one another. Oblivion was prominently featured in the sculpture portion of the second Whitney Biennial in 1936.
This exhibition closes Sunday, 1/19/25.
