In 1966, just as Objects: USA was beginning to take shape in Lee Nordness’s mind, Paul J. Smith staged a characteristically adventurous exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts. Entitled Fantasy Furniture, it featured the work of five artists who departed from modernism in favor of “an extravagant image,” in Smith’s words, “a wild and unrestrained fancy.”¹ One of these five was Wendell Castle; another was Tommy Simpson. His work could be seen as late Surrealism or early psychedelia, but it was also totally sui generis—a fusion of painterly gesture and zoomorphic forms all his own.
Simpson had a terrific and offbeat sense of humor, and was highly unusual at this period for his use of paint, which he applied with theatrical aplomb. In 1968 he published a book on his own and related contemporary work, also entitled Fantasy Furniture. In it, Simpson noted that furniture could be “the depository of hopes, loves, sorrows as well as for books, foodstuffs and underwear.”² Man Balancing a Feather on His Knows, which was included in the Fantasy Furniture book (and is featured in the Objects: USA 2020 catalogue), is typical of his work in its gentle anthropomorphism, the sly wordplay of its titling, and a pervading air of magic.
¹ American Craftsmen’s Council, Fantasy Furniture (New York: Museum of Contemporary Crafts, 1966), 2.
² Tommy Simpson, Fantasy Furniture: Design and Decoration (New York: Reinhold, 1968), 51.
² Tommy Simpson, Fantasy Furniture: Design and Decoration (New York: Reinhold, 1968), 51.
The Beak side table in wood and painted with acrylic. Designed by Tommy Simpson, USA, circa 1966.
31" H
78.7cm H
NS63
Lent by Glenn Adamson