Wishbone Chair | Yale University Art Gallery

1970

This chair by Art Carpenter is richly evocative of the revival of crafts in the United States following World War II and represents the idea of the self-taught furniture maker. Other related objects in the collection are the chair by George Nakashima and the print table by Sam Maloof.

Medium: Walnut and leather
Dimensions: 31 × 21 1/4 × 21 1/2 in. (78.7 × 54 × 54.6 cm)
Credit Line: Yale University Art Gallery
Accession Number: 1999.70.1
Geography: Made in Bolinas, California
Culture: American
Period: 20th century
Classification: Furniture
Disclaimer: Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

This is one of a pair of chairs that turned up at the Western States Antiques Fair in Manhattan Beach, California, on 31 July 1999. The dealers offering the chairs said that they purchased the chairs from a neighbor of theirs, Reed Arnaud, who was moving into a retirement home. Arnaud, a painter who is in his late eighties, had purchased the chairs from Art Carpenter. The second chair was purchased by doctoral candidate Glenn Adamson.

Bibliography

Jeannine Falino, Jennifer Scanlan, and Glenn Adamson, Crafting Modernism: Midcentury American Art and Design, exh. cat. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2011), 228, fig. 11.3

Edward S. Cooke, Jr., Gerald W. R. Ward, and Kelly H. L'Ecuyer, The Maker's Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940–1990, exh. cat. (Boston, Massachusetts: MFA Publications, 2003), 45, no. 16

"Acquisitions, 1999," in "The Architecture of the Yale University Art Gallery," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2000), 161

Object copyright

Not Assigned

Additional information

Object/Work type

chairs

Marks

Stamped on underside of proper left side rail "Espenet"/7060

Technical metadata and APIs

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