Wendell Castle

When I was in Lawrence, Kansas last week, I stopped by the Spencer Museum of Art.  It's a fairly small museum, especially by Smithsonian standards, but they had a really nice, eclectic collection.  Of course they had the prairie artists like Thomas Hart Benton that you'd expect to see in a Kansas museum.  However, there were also pieces from every culture you could think of: Oceania, India, Japan, China, West Africa, Greco-Roman.  
They had a couple of Renaissance carvings, a medieval reliquary, and there was a large collection of Haitian art that reflects the range of modern Haitian art.  And there was a very nicely curated and displayed selection of modern art: Warhol, Motherwell, and Shimomura.  It's well worth the detour and the cost of admission (free!).

While I was there, I noticed a couple of pieces by Wendell Castle, a designer of contemporary furniture.  I have a bit of a personal connection with him, as he and my mother went on a few dates together in college in the mid-1950s.  His furniture is curvy and whimsical, but he also does conceptual pieces.


I discovered that he just died in January of 2018, and decided to a bit of research on him.  I was really struck by his Ten Adopted Rules of Thumb - they seem to cover a lot of learnings in a very concise, yet elegant way..  Castle said the rules are based on the things he felt he learned from Wharton Esherick, the man who 'was never his teacher'.  You can see the Adopted Rules in Castle's own hand here.
Ten Adopted Rules of Thumb
  1. If you are in love with an idea you are no judge of its beauty or value.
  2. It is difficult to see the whole picture when you are inside the frame.
  3. After learning the tricks of the trade, don’t think you know the trade.
  4. We hear and apprehend what we already know.
  5. The dog that stays on the porch will find no bones.
  6. Never state a problem to yourself in the same terms it was brought to you.
  7. If its offbeat or surprising, its probably useful.
  8. If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it.
  9. Don’t get too serious.
  10. If you hit the bull’s eye every time, the target is too near.
I suppose this post is a tribute/memorial of sorts to the man who may have become my father in a parallel universe.

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