About the Artwork
In 1986 the DIA commissioned furniture artist Wendell Castle to fashion a bench for the museum's permanent collection. Castle creates work that continually challenges accepted attitudes about the design, construction, and purpose of furniture. The aluminum framework was the first element constructed. Castle then began carving the armrests in the middle of the bench and the six legs from stack-laminated forms. The outer portions of the arms are constructed using lamination in which small pieces of wood are arranged in formations like brick walls to strengthen the joints.
Bench
1988
Wendell Keith Castle
1932 - 2018
American
Unknown
Amaranth (purpleheart), aluminum, and cowhide
Overall: 35 × 129 3/4 × 48 inches (88.9 cm × 3 m 29.6 cm × 121.9 cm)
Furniture
Contemporary Art after 1950
Founders Society Purchase with funds from Art of Poland Associates
1988.19
Copyright not assessed, please contact [email protected].
Markings
Engraved, at the outside bottom of one of the central legs
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Provenance
the artist
1988-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Bulletin of the DIA 64, 2-3 (1988): p. 33 (fig. 22).
Taragin, Davira. "Evolution of a Commission: a Wendell Castle Bench." Bulletin of the DIA 65, 1 (1989): pp. 49-59 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Wendell Keith Castle, Bench, 1988, amaranth (purpleheart), aluminum, and cowhide. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from Art of Poland Associates, 1988.19.
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