Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/96336
GeorgeLindehmannCulturedMiamiDec_Layout 1 11/21/12 12:27 PM Page 102 Austin Harrelson, who decorated Lindemann's house, stands beside a Wendell Castle dining table and chairs. PHOTO BY SHERRY GRIFFIN/COURTESY OF R 20TH CENTURY (CASTLE) Alligator chair and sconce by Claude Lalanne GeorgeLi SEMINALWORKS Lindemann has collected many designers' work in depth, though perhaps none more extensively than Castle. "Wendell is the most under-appreciated designer alive today," Lindemann says. "He's made a houseful of objects for me—chairs, couches, tables, side tables, desks." The two have also developed a friendship after first connecting about 12 years ago when Lindemann asked Castle to design a table. That commission didn't happen, but a few years later Lindemann got in touch again, Castle recalls, and started buying his work, both old and new, in earnest. At the time, says Castle, "The early pieces really hadn't been on the market, and they weren't bringing what they bring now. So George got some pretty good deals." Lindemman also owns what he calls "a quintessential, seminal masterpiece" of Castle's: the Environments for Contemplation, 1969. A curving, bulbous form that resembles the bottom of a giant tree, it's made of laminated oak and is large enough in which to fit a human adult. There's a small door on its side, and a hole on top allows air and light to enter. "It is probably one of the most important pieces in Wendell's career," Synderman says. Surprisingly, though, it sat in a kiln shed on Castle's property for years, largely forgotten. "I made it for an exhibition in New York, and it got a lot of big-time press," Castle recalls. "But nobody bought it. And it came back and it was in my living room for a few years. I got tired of anybody who came along asking, 'What's that thing?' So I put it in storage." At one point there was a minor fire, and the piece incurred water damage. "The wood didn't fare so well, and I was almost ready to call it junk," Castle says. "And then Evan came along." Snyderman says that it took "many, many conversations" to persuade Castle that the piece was worth restoring. Castle spent six months bringing it back to its original beauty. In 2004, it was shown at R 20th Century Gallery and then at Design Miami/Basel, where Lindemann first saw it. He has loaned that piece, along with Stool Sculpture, a 1959 student work by Castle, to an exhibition of his works from the 1960s and '70s. That show, co-curated by Snyderman, is currently on view at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut. After the show closes on February 20, Environments for Contemplation will likely return to Lindemann's Miami office, where it serves its owner well. "When I need to get away and think for a minute, I sit in there," Lindemann says. "That's not why I bought it, but that's how I've ended up using it."—M.D. 102 CULTURED Castle's Environments for Contemplation, 1970