F R O M T H E S T A C K S
Maloof.
.. D esigner,
Craftsman of Furniture
S T O R Y B Y
Christine Kaminsky
W hen Sherley Ashton wrote about Sam Maloof, now 93, in the
June 1954
C r a ft H o rizo n s,
the master woo worker’s career ha
just begun. Even then he approache woo working with the
conviction that the esigner an maker are inseparable. Notable
for its elegant functionality, his work has been wi ely exhibite
an was the subject of a retrosjpective at the Smithsonian
American A rt Museum’s Renwick Gallery an is in its perma-
nent collection as well as in those of many other museums.
Tucked away on the
sixth floor o f 72 Spring
Street in New York
City is the American
Craft Council library,
one of the largest collec-
tions in this country
of craft, art and design
books documenting
the studio craft move-
ment from the 1940s to
the present. The over
14,000 volumes include
the Council's 67-year
publishing history-all
past issues of
Craft
Horizons
and American
Craft. We’d like to
share some of this amaz-
ing past as we dig
through the stacks. If
you happen to be in
the city, come in and
say hello-the library
is open to the public.
Among the first to join the American Craft
Council’s newly created College of Fellows,
in 1975, Maloof was selected by his peers
to receive the Council’s Gold Medal in 1988.
He was the first craftsman to be awarded a
MacArthur Foundation fellowship, in 1985.
His legacy is assured with the Sam and Al-
freda Maloof Foundation for the Arts and
Crafts, which Maloof founded, with his
first wife, the late Alfreda, in 1994. The
Foundation is part of a sprawling compound
in Alta Loma, California, where Maloof
lives with his second wife, Beverly. It en-
compasses the original house he built in
1954—now a national historic landmark-
stunning newer buildings, lush gardens
and woodshops where he continues to work.
Maloof recently completed three new
designs, all of which are on view until July 2
in a solo exhibition of his work at the River-
side Art Museum. He has often insisted that
“no matter how beautiful a chair is, if it is
not comfortable, it is not a good chair.”
Presidents Carter, Reagan and Clinton have
all owned his signature rockers and who
better to recognize an ideal way to relax than
leaders with the weight of the world on
their shoulders? President Obama, is there
a Maloof chair in your future? ♦
To read the entire
Craft Horizons
article,
visit us at americancraftmag.org.
072 american craft jun/julo9
