“His legacy lies not in establishing a style, his designs were too unique, but in pioneering the way for successive generations of artists working in wood to exhibit and market their original, non-traditional designs.” – WE Museum
Along with Nakashima and Maloof, Wharton Esherick makes up the three most esteemed wood artists/craftsmen of the modern era. Esherick spent much of his career in isolation, a lone artisan pursuing his own vision of high-art craftsmanship during a period when hand craftsmanship was generally held in low regard by American culture – levins. But his important work aided in the establishment of the studio furniture movement and high value attributed to hand-craftsmanship in wood. Originally a painter, he eventually moved into woodworking, starting a 40 year modelling of the home that has now become a museum in Valley Forge Mountain, Pennsylvania. Obsessed with curves as anyone can make a straight line, Esherick sculpted living environments for himself and clients that blurred the lines between art, craft, sculpture, furniture, function & form.
http://www.whartonesherickmuseum.org/
