Wendell Castle - Father of the American Studio Movement

Sculptor Michael Beitz has had pieces featured in museums such as BDDW, based in New York and Milano, Italy. In addition to his formal education, Michael Beitz trained with world-renowned furniture sculptor Wendell Castle.

Wendell Castle was most widely known for being the progenitor of the American Studio Movement. After earning his MFA in sculpture in 1961, Mr. Castle taught at the School of American Craftsmen and served as the department head of woodworking at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He also opened a studio.

Mr. Castle is known for using whimsical organic forms and innovative techniques for shaping laminated wood. Unafraid to challenge conventional boundaries of furniture design, some of his most iconic pieces in wood and fiberglass have become notable pieces of 20th century contemporary furniture design.

Many of his designs have been featured in some of the country’s most esteemed museums. The Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Brooklyn Museum in New York are a few that contain his work in their permanent collections.

Mr. Castle earned many honors over his career, including recognition among “Visionaries of the American Craft Movement.” The Brooklyn Museum awarded him the Modernism Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Gather and Blue Line - Innovative Sculptures Encourage Interaction

An artist, sculptor, and furniture designer, Michael Beitz has undertaken art residencies at ART BNB in Jerusalem and the Konvent 0 Residency in Barcelona, Spain. Among Michael Beitz’s innovative contemporary art installations are Gather, an elongated metal picnic table, and Blue Line, a bentwood picnic table with numerous wood planks formed into twists and turns.

Both Gather and Blue Line infuse practical domestic furniture items such as picnic tables with more abstract elements of contemporary art. Utilizing 100 linear feet of wood, Blue Line creates an interactive site where passersby can stop and spend time. According to the artist, the piece aims to inspire a reexamination of the viewer’s relationship with furniture.

Gather takes another twist on a traditional picnic table. The metal table begins on the roof and spills over the side of the building to gather on the sidewalk below. Again, the piece invites viewers to sit and interact with the sculpture, experiencing an ordinary object such as a table uniquely.