Photo by Susan Sherman, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum
The Taft Museum of Art is the newest home of traveling exhibition The Crafted World of Wharton Esherick, celebrating the eclectic and innovative American artist. Created in partnership with the Brandywine Museum of Art and the Wharton Esherick Museum, the exhibition features around 80 handpicked items from the artist’s home in Pennsylvania.
“It’s a really exciting show for us,” Taft’s Director of Marketing & Engagement, Sarah Ditlinger, says. “Because it’s coming from the home and handcrafted world of Wharton Esherick himself. And here at the Taft, we are also a home.”
Both the Taft Museum of Art and the Wharton Esherick Museum are intricately designed spaces filled with history. Just as the Taft Museum once housed the Tafts, the latter building served as the home of Esherick himself. The exhibit aims to bring a piece of Esherick’s home to a larger audience, providing an overview of the different media and themes he embraced, such as nature.
Known as the “father of studio furniture” for his work rebranding furniture as sculpture, Esherick dropped out of art school just before graduating, much to his parents’ dismay. By the late 1920s, he had begun his journey as a prolific multidisciplinary artist. The Crafted World showcases a fraction of his multifaceted practice, which includes oil paintings, ink prints, sculptures, and furniture.
Image Courtesy of Wharton Esherick Museum
“Follow what moves you,” Ditlinger says. “You can see in Wharton Esherick’s work that he wasn’t dictated necessarily by what was expected of him, but by what he expected from himself, which was to find something meaningful for his own life.”
Walking into the exhibition, visitors are greeted by the earthy scent of wood, the artist’s material of choice. Chairs and desks, with their deep grooves, practically beckon you to touch them and the legs of wooden stools and music stands bend like blades of grass in the wind—displaying Esherick’s ability to imbue life into inanimate objects.
“He has really created a legacy for artists to see wood as a way to express themselves,” says Associate Curator Ann Glasscock. “As a way to see wood as art, and to see furniture as art and not just something that’s utilitarian.”
Just as the Taft Museum is adorned with wooden molding and ornate carpets, the Esherick exhibit also highlights wood and intricate patterns—from the flowing rivulets in the wood grain to the etched lines in his woodblock prints. What is seen as everyday objects, such as bowls, are reevaluated.
Photography by Eoin O’Neill, courtesy of the Wharton Esherick Museum
“I think that should challenge people to think about their own spaces,” Glasscock says. “Even though we may not have a kitchen that’s made with things entirely by hand, just how Esherick did…his personality still comes through, and I think our personalities still come through in the world that we’ve crafted for ourselves at home too.”
Continuing to emphasize that sense of home, the Taft Museum will host a free “Family Funday” on July 27, offering a chance for kids to engage with art. Visitors can touch the various types of wood Escherick commonly used for his sculptures.
The Crafted World will be on display in the Fifth Third Gallery until September 7. This marks the final stop of the exhibition’s national tour. While it is a ticketed event, the Taft Museum of Art offers free admission on Sundays and Mondays.
Facebook Comments