Wendell Castle

(1932–2018) Wendell Castle has been a sculptor, designer, and educator for over five decades. He is known throughout the world for his innovative designs in wood, plastic, and bronze. Castle’s work is represented in many major museum collections throughout the United States, Europe, and the Far East. These include the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), and the Brooklyn Museum in New York; the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C.; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Detroit Art Institute; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO.

Castle has been recognized many times over for his contributions to the arts and design fields in the United States, having received numerous awards, grants, and honors for his accomplishments. These include three honorary doctoral degrees, several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Gold Medal Award and being named a Fellow by the American Craft Council, listing in Who’s Who in American Art, the Golden Plate award from the American Academy of Achievement, the Visionaries award from the Museum of Art & Design, the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Kansas School of Fine Arts, the Award of Distinction from the Furniture Society, the Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, and the Lifetime Achievement Award For Excellence in Design from the Brooklyn Museum.

In addition to having a strong career as an artist, Wendell Castle has contributed to the education of others who aspire to be artists. He began teaching in 1960 at Kansas University and would later move to Rochester, New York, to teach at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and the State University of New York at Brockport. From 1980 to 1988, Castle operated his own art school at his studio in Scottsville, New York. Many of his students have gone on to teach and have successful careers in the arts and in the design fields. He is currently on the staff of RIT as artist-in-residence and is asked to exhibit, lecture, and teach at many educational institutions throughout the world.