Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett opens at the Museum of Arts & Design
Exhibition Dates: January 18 – April 29, 2001
New York – The Museum of Arts & Design announces the opening of Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Garry Knox Bennett. The first retrospective of one of America’s foremost furniture makers opens on January 18, 2001, and remains on view until April 29, 2001. It will then travel to the Oakland Museum of California.
Garry Knox Bennett has played a major role in the development of studio furniture in the San Francisco Bay Area and across the nation for more than 25 years. In 1979, Bennett began to rewrite the ground rules for studio furniture making. By driving a nail into the beautiful finish of his Nail Cabinet, he struck a blow that echoed throughout the studio furniture community and helped to free the field from its obsession with technique and its overbearing reverence for wood. Nail Cabinet became a landmark in the history of twentieth-century craft. Bennett’s nonconformist approach to furniture making is also exemplified in masterworks such as the ColorCore Desk (1984) and the Boston Kneehole Desk (1989). His innovations and irreverence changed the course of studio furniture making for future generations of craftsmen.
“The mission of the Museum of Arts & Design is to support craft by celebrating the talent of national and international master craftsmen. It is in this tradition that we honor the achievements of Garry Knox Bennett, a seminal figure in studio furniture making, with the exhibition Made in Oakland” says Holly Hotchner, Museum of Arts & Design Director.
Bennett’s furniture, clocks and lamps, while eminently functional, are full of visual surprises, unexpected shapes and angles, striking colors, and contrasting materials and surface treatments. Robust in spirit, extroverted, innovative and energetic, Bennett’s creations express a sensibility that is clearly American. “What one admires about Garry Knox Bennett is above all the prodigality of his invention,” states Arthur C. Danto, Emeritus Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University and essayist in the exhibition catalogue. Ursula Ilse-Neuman, curator of the exhibition at the Museum of Arts & Design comments, “Garry Knox Bennett has created a uniquely American contemporary vernacular that alludes to tradition but unsettles it with unconventional materials and distinctive design elements. His work transforms the commonplace into the unexpected.”
A native of Alameda, CA, Bennett began to study sculpture in the l960s when the countercultural revolution was at its height. When he applied his fascination with sculptural composition and highly expressive forms to furniture making, he was immediately recognized as a maverick in the field, a reputation he maintains to this day. “While many other furniture makers in California shared a common irreverence or lack of inhibition, only Bennett has remained active and consistently produced a strong body of work over the twenty-five year period,” states Edward S. Cooke, Jr., Professor of American Decorative Arts in the Department of Art History at Yale University, and contributor to the exhibition catalogue.
The 80 works included in the exhibition range from large-scale desks and trestle tables to Bennett’s unconventional clocks, lamps, and jewelry – a rich assembly that displays his sharp sense of humor, innovative techniques, and meticulous craftsmanship. Among his most recent works is a newly invented form, the tablelamp/lamptable, novelly constructed of materials ranging from bamboo and PVC to bowling balls.
Bennett’s innovative working methods will be examined in the exhibition through enlarged photographs and a deconstructed piece of furniture that demonstrates his use of the band saw, drill press, and milling machine to create unusual effects. The artist will also prepare an interactive display in which visitors will be invited to experiment with his ingenious electric switches, hidden compartments, and unique fittings.
The 240-page illustrated catalogue of the exhibition is the definitive work on the artist and his career. Essayists include Dr. Arthur Danto, Emeritus Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University; Professor Edward S. Cooke, Jr., Charles F. Montgomery Professor of American Decorative Arts in the Department of Art History at Yale University; and Ursula Ilse-Neuman, curator of the exhibition.
Works by Garry Knox Bennett are in the collection of the Museum of Arts & Design; the Renwick Gallery, Washington, D.C.; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Oakland Museum; and the Mint Museum for Craft and Design, Charlotte, North Carolina.
This exhibition has been made possible with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and with assistance from Peter Joseph, Agnes Bourne, R. Philip Hanes, Jr., Ron Abramson, Robert and Judy Cornfeld, Daphne Farago, George B. and Dorothy Saxe, and friends of Garry Knox Bennett.