I.29 Coffee Table, 1958 (235)

Sculpture

Wendell Castle Archives

Name/Title

I.29 Coffee Table, 1958 (235)

Entry/Object ID

sc.0029.0235.1958

Type of Sculpture

Free Standing

Artwork Details

Medium

Walnut, Padouk

Subject

Table

Collection

Tables, 1950s

Cataloged By

[email protected]

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Wendell Castle

Role

Artist

Date made

1958

Time Period

1950s

Inscription/Signature/Marks

Type

Signature

Location

On bottom short cross beam

Transcription

W.C. 58

Other Names and Numbers

Other Numbers

Number Type

Catalogue Raisonné Number

Other Number

I.29

Number Type

Studio Number

Other Number

235

Dimensions

Height

23-3/8 in

Depth

31 in

Length

63-1/2 in

Height

59.4 cm

Depth

78.7 cm

Length

161.3 cm

Color

Brown

Inventory

Inventoried By

[email protected]

Inventoried Date

May 28, 2026

Provenance

Provenance Detail

Dr. Edward Ruhe

Place

State/Province

Kansas

Provenance Detail

Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum

Place

District

Washington D.C.

Acquisition Method

Gift

Acquisition Date

1993

Notes/Remarks

Gift of the Ruhe family in member of Dr. Edward Lehman Ruhe. Acc. no. 1993-24.

Exhibitions

Right at Home: American Studio Furniture

Wendell Castle: Wandering Forms—Works from 1959-1979 (CT)

General Notes

Note Type

Literature

Note

Alastair Gordon, Wendell Castle: Wandering Forms–Works from 1959-1979 (New York: Gregory R. Miller & Co., 2012). Judith Gura, "The Shape of Things to Come," Art + Auction, April 2008.

Note Type

Comments

Note

Castle and college roommate Cooper Woodring, who became an industrial designer, each decided to design and execute a coffee table. Due to the university's lack of milling equipment, Castle was unable to fabricate a flat board for the table's top, which led him to source planed padouk, an exotic hardwood, from a Kansas City lumber mill. With Coffee Table, Castle challenged the idea of conventional supports. Instead of legs, bands made from gunstock blanks coil and intertwine before securing to the table's top rather than underside.

Created By

[email protected]

Create Date

May 28, 2026

Updated By

[email protected]

Update Date

October 8, 2026