Wendell Castle was always reaching out, in his forms and in his mind, and Squid Chair with Table literally diagrams this impulse. Its most unusual feature, a trio of tentacle-like legs curling upward from the base, bestows the composition with a curious, exploratory air. Together with the contours of the seat and integral tabletop, these tendril-like elements make the piece a compressed masterpiece of complex curvatures. Castle made only one other Squid Chair (the other, also made in cherry wood in 1966, lacks the table element), but they relate to other early works at various scales, in which he explored serpentine forms as a way to extend his compositions out into space. These light, draftsmanly touches counterbalance the monumental massing made possible by his breakthrough stack-lamination technique. Squid Chair with Table is a unique example of how he handled these contrasting aspects of his rapidly developing vocabulary. It shows his remarkable capacity to generate perfectly resolved forms, even as he was in high speed pursuit of his own imagination, wherever it led him.

Dr. Leonard Zinker and Anne Coffey Zinker, Rochester, NY
Barbara Anne Zinker, Rochester, NY and Robert Zinker, Tampa, FL