Overview

Tommy Simpson almost singlehandedly changed the direction of the Studio Furniture field. Trained as an artist at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Tommy exhibited at more than 250 museums and galleries over his prolific 60-year career. Despite the influence of his work and his prodigious output, there is no comprehensive biography or catalog of his work. In addition to furniture, he created paintings, sculptures, rug designs, domestic interiors, ceramics, jewelry, toys, even a stamp for the U.S. Post Office. Culminating all these formats in this full-color book with over 200 photographs of Simpson’s work, this volume will appeal to students, artists, furniture makers, collectors, and anyone intrigued by the humor, enchantment, and pure joy of his work.

Full Product Details

9781538186107

Table of Contents

Reviews

Here at last is the full and thoughtful treatment that Tommy Simpson’s prolific, six-decade career deserves. Simpson’s remarkable work defies categorization – drawing as it does from sculpture, poetry, painting, and even theater – yet its power may be attributed to a single, generous impulse: the wish to inspire joy. Oscar Fitzgerald’s sensitive portrait of Simpson and his work not only provides the self-proclaimed 'imaginist' in full, but it also challenges us to re-imagine the history of the Studio Furniture movement as a whole. -- Tripp Evans * Professor of American Material Culture at Wheaton College and author of The Importance of Being Furnished: Four Bachelors at Home, winner of the New England Society Book Award for Art and Photography *

Author Information

Oscar P. Fitzgerald, PhD is a nationally known historian, author, lecturer, and consultant on American furniture from colonial times to the present. As a member of the faculty of the Smithsonian Institution/George Washington University Decorative Arts and Design History Masters Program, he teaches all the furniture classes He has shared his passion for furniture with audiences nationwide, including a number of certification seminars for appraisers. Recently, he presented a program on identifying Mid-century Modern furniture fakes at the annual conference of the International Society of Appraisers. His latest publication is the definitive American Furniture Designers: 1900-2020.

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