Paul Evans 'Deep Relief' Freestanding Sideboard

Name: Paul Evans 'Deep Relief' Freestanding Sideboard
Brand: Paul Evans
Rating: 4.9 (177 reviews)

About the Item

Paul Evans, Paul Evans Studio for Directional, 'Deep Relief' sideboard, model 'PE-42', welded steel, painted oak, cleft slate, United States, 1968 An exceptional design by Paul Evans undeniably breathes artistic excellence combined with impeccable craftsmanship. This piece exemplifies Evans’s idiosyncratic way with welding and constructing. Evans departed from the traditional values of the designer-craftsman, which prioritize respect for materials and functional simplicity. Instead, he showed a keen interest in manipulating materials and creating artificial aging effects. However, he maintained a strong belief in the importance of the craftsman's expertise and ingenuity as the foundation for innovation and replication. The emphasis on surface treatment became the defining characteristic of his furniture designs, of which this large cabinet is a prime example. As Evans articulates the essence of his oeuvre, handmade product should bear the mark of the hand. Mere good lines are insufficient, as those can be industrially produced. Furniture ought to embody detail and richness. The present sideboard features a welded construction in steel with a patchwork surface and cleft slate panels. The doors embrace an asymmetrical layout of geometric hand-forged contours that vary in size, shape, pattern, and color. The front has a rough, uneven textured surface. The diagonal outlined-shapes are defined by an expressively colored polychromed, consisting of the colors red, yellow, blue, green, and orange. This design feature testifies to the postmodern design ideology. A noteworthy aspect of the design is that the back is also finished with the patchwork steel sheets, meaning that the sideboard can placed in the middle of the room. The piece is signed and dated "Paul Evans 68". Paul Evans (1931-1987) was among one of the most important American Studio Craft Movement members. Together with artists such as Wharton Esherick and George Nakashima, he helped to make the Philadelphia region a prominent center for the Studio Craft in the late 1960s. Born in Newton, Pennsylvania, Evans studied at a few different institutions such as the Philadelphia Textile Institute, the Rochester Institute of Technology, School for American Craftsman, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Eventually, he was drawn to New Hope, Pennsylvania, in 1955 where he collaborated and shared a showroom with Phillip Lloyd Powell until 1966. Powell’s woodwork and Evans's metal craftsmanship combined into a creative partnership. During this period, he started to create furniture with metal and sculpture by which he manipulated materials to achieve expressive surface effects. In 1964, Evans started working for the Directional Furniture company where he pursued a new phase of his career. Directional offered him new opportunities for selling his work throughout the US and he continuously introduced new lines. However, his line proved to be too expensive and by the end of the seventies, he ended his relationship with the company. It was also throughout the seventies that Evans started to replace these crusty, textured surfaced, that were patinated with paint and acid, with dazzling, reflective metal surfaces that were sometimes mixed with woods. Evans’s oeuvre has an impressive size especially when regarding all pieces were handmade. On March 6, 1987, the artist shut down his business and, unfortunately, died the next day due to a heart attack.

Creator:
Paul Evans (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 29.53 in (75 cm)Width: 94.69 in (240.5 cm)Depth: 21.07 in (53.5 cm)
Style:
Post-Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Oak,Slate,Steel
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
1960-1969
Date of Manufacture:
1968
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Every item Morentz offers is checked by our team of 30 craftspeople in our in-house workshop. Special restoration or reupholstery requests can be done. Check ‘About the item’ or ask our design specialists for detailed information on the condition.
Seller Location:
Waalwijk, NL
Reference Number:
Seller: 501157001stDibs: LU933142291002

Shop All Paul Evans

Paul Evans

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.

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