The Rago Arts and Auction Center will host an open house on Oct. 16.
The event will features the sculptor and furniture designer, Mark Sfirri, speaking on "Wharton Esherick: The Reluctant Woodworker" at 6 p.m.
The talk takes place during the preview week for Rago’s 20th C. Decorative Arts and Design Auctions.
The auction house opens at noon. A reception begins at 5 p.m.
Wharton Esherick was born in 1887 in Philadelphia, and died in 1970 in Paoli. He was a furniture maker and sculptor, mainly using wood as his medium. In addition to his career as a woodworker, he was a painter, illustrator, block print artist, and architect. His pursuits were inspired in part by his friends, who were involved in the visual and performing arts. Mr. Esherick was the unknowing founder of the Studio Furniture Movement in the United States. His influence endures.
"Wharton Esherick: The Reluctant Woodworker" explores about the life and work of Mr. Esherick as it relates to the development of the studio furniture movement in the United States. Mr. Sfirri will touch on the variety of work that Mr. Esherick produced beyond furniture and sculpture, as well as the stylistic changes during his career.
Mark Sfirri designs and constructs furniture and sculpture, mostly in wood, incorporating lathe-turned forms on multiple axes in his work. He has run the Fine Woodworking Program at Bucks County Community College in Newtown, Pennsylvania since 1981.
Since 2006, Mr. Sfirri has been researching the life and work of woodworker Wharton Esherick. He has authored or co-authored six articles about him for Woodwork and Journal of Modern Craft. This year, he spoke on Mr. Esherick at a symposium, which was part of the Paul Evans Retrospective at the James A. Michener Art Museum in Doylestown.
RSVP to 609-397-9374, ext. 119, or [email protected]. Visitors are welcome, even if unable to RSVP.
