Decorative Arts


Contemporary Studio Case Furniture
The Inside Story
Glenn Adamson, Virginia T. Boyd, and Thomas Loeser


An exhibition of national scope

Boxes, cabinets, chests, cupboards, desks, and sideboards—this volume showcases one-of-a-kind and limited-edition pieces designed and constructed by today's emerging and established furniture makers and artists. This exhibition catalog illustrates the many ways in which thirty-seven contemporary artists approach case furniture, a traditional form that is being constantly defined and redefined. This simultaneously utilitarian and aesthetic art form permits artists, from traditional to avant-garde, to express their own visions.

Essayists and guest curators for the exhibition, Thomas Loeser and Virginia T. Boyd, present the artist's and scholar's perspectives on contemporary decorative arts and discuss the themes underlying the exhibition. An overview of the development of studio furniture over the past decade by decorative arts scholar Glenn Adamson provides a recent historical context for the pieces in the exhibition.

Glenn Adamson is a curator at the Chipstone Foundation and teaches art history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Virginia T. Boyd is professor in the Department of Environment, Textile, and Design, and Thomas Loeser is professor of art, both at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

These catalogs are companions to 2002 exhibitions at the Elvehjem Museum of Art at the Universiy of Wisconsin-Madison. The case furniture exhibition coincides with the national meeting of the Furniture Society.

For more information regarding publicity and reviews contact our publicity manager, Chris Caldwell, phone: (608) 263-0734, email: publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu

June 2002
96 pp.      9 x 10
37 color photos, 20 b/w photos    
ISBN 978-0-932900-77-7  
Paper $24.95 s




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