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The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick

October 13, 2024 - January 19, 2025
Wood desk and chair with a bronze sculpture on top
Wharton Esherick, Flat Top Desk, 1929 and 1962. Walnut and padouk, 28 x 82 x 36 in. ; Desk Chair, 1929. Walnut, padouk, laced leather seat, 28 x 18 x 18 in. ; Desk Figure, Bronze casting of 1929 Cocobolo original, 10 x 5 x 4 in. All works from the Wharton Esherick Museum Collection. Photo by Eoin O’Neill, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum. 
Wood music stand
Wharton Esherick, Music Stand, 1960. Walnut and cherry, 44 1/2 x 20 x 20 in. Wharton Esherick Museum Collection. Photo by Eoin O’Neill, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.
Wood library ladder
Wharton Esherick, Library Ladder, 1969. Cherry, 48 1/2 x 25 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. Wharton Esherick Museum Collection. Photo by Eoin O’Neill, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.
Wharton Esherick, The Race, 1925. Painted wood on walnut base, 6 3/4 x 30 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. Wharton Esherick Museum Collection. Photo by Eoin O’Neill, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.
Wharton Esherick, The Race, 1925. Painted wood on walnut base, 6 3/4 x 30 3/4 x 8 1/2 in. Wharton Esherick Museum Collection. Photo by Eoin O’Neill, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.
Studio view
Wharton Esherick’s Studio dining room. Photo courtesy of the Wharton Esherick 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.

Wharton Esherick circa 1960. Photo by Susan Sherman, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.
Wharton Esherick circa 1960. Photo by Susan Sherman, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum.

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. 

 

Exhibition venues and dates:

  • Brandywine Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA: October 12, 2024–January 19, 2025
  • Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI: February 17–May 18, 2025
  • Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, OH: June 7–September 7, 2025