Paul Evans Commodes and Chests of Drawers
American, 1931-1987
A designer and sculptor, Paul Evans was a wild card of late 20th century modernism. A leading light of the American Studio Furniture movement, Evans’s sideboards, credenzas, coffee tables and other work manifests a singular aesthetic sense, as well as a seemingly contradictory appreciation for both folk art forms and for new materials and technologies.
Evans’s primary material was metal, not wood, which was favored by his fellow studio designers, and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, neighbors George Nakashima and Phillip Lloyd Powell. He trained in metallurgy and studied at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, the famed crucible of modern design and art in suburban Detroit. For a time early in his career, Evans also worked at Sturbridge Village, a historical “living museum” in Massachusetts, where he gave demonstrations as a costumed silversmith.
Evans’s earliest work unites these influences. The pieces that made his reputation are known as “sculpted-front” cabinets: wood cases faced with box-like high-relief patinated steel mounts laid out in a grid pattern. Each mount contains a metal emblem, or glyph, and the effect is that of a brawny quilt.
Evans’s later work falls into three distinct style groups. His sculpted-bronze pieces, begun in the mid-1960s, show Evans at his most expressive. He employed a technique in which resin is hand-shaped, and later sprayed with a metal coating, allowing for artistic nuance in the making of chairs, tables and case pieces. Later in the decade and into the 1970s, Evans produced his Argente series for celebrated manufacturer Directional (a brand known to vintage mid-century modern furniture collectors everywhere): consoles and other furniture forms that feature aluminum and pigment-infused metal surfaces welded into abstract organic forms and patterns.
Last, Evans's Cityscape design series — a milestone in the history of brutalist design — meshed perfectly with the sleek, “high tech” sensibility of the later ’70s. Evans constructed boxy forms and faced them with irregular mosaic patterns that mixed rectangular plaques of chromed steel, bronze or burlwood veneer. These, like all of Paul Evans’s designs, are both useful and eye-catching. But their appeal has another, more visceral quality: these pieces have clearly been touched by an artist’s hand.
Find a collection of authentic Paul Evans furniture today on 1stDibs.
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Creator: Paul Evans
Pair of Paul Evans Cityscape Floating Night Stands for Directional, USA 1970s
By Directional, Paul Evans
Located in Fort Lauderdale, FL
Pair of Paul Evans Cityscape Floating Night Stands for Directional, USA 1970s
Brass and chrome tiles over wood with wood veneer face on pulls, both signed, one on bottom, one on side...
Category
1970s American Modern Vintage Paul Evans Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Materials
Brass, Chrome
Pair of Paul Evans Mid-Century Modern Polished Chrome "Cityscape" 3-Drawer
By Paul Evans
Located in Queens, NY
PAIR of Mid-Century Modern "Cityscape" chests with polished chrome veneer and three drawers. (PAUL EVANS)(PRICED AS PAIR)
Condition: Good; Wear consistent with age and use
Category
Mid-20th Century Unknown Mid-Century Modern Paul Evans Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Materials
Chrome
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Paul Evans commodes and chests of drawers for sale on 1stDibs.
Paul Evans commodes and chests of drawers are available for sale on 1stDibs.