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Sam Forrest created handcrafted furniture pieces that are fully functional works of art. (Photo by Jay Paul)
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Photo by Jay Paul
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Photo by Jay Paul
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Sam Forrest (Photo courtesy The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design)
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Sam Forrest rarely made a design more than once. He created this floor lamp with a mate because he wanted a pair. (Photo courtesy The Branch Museum of Architecture and Design)
In the years following World War II, a small group of American furniture designers rejected the mass-production techniques embraced by their contemporaries. Instead, they returned to handcraft in order to create one-of-a-kind furnishings that are functional pieces of art. “Atavistic Memories: The Studio Furniture of Sam Forrest,” an exhibition now on view at the Branch Museum of Architecture and Design, explores the art furniture movement through the work of Richmond furniture maker Sam Forrest (1936-2021).
The American Studio Craft movement arrived in Richmond in 1967 on the heels of a new crafts program at Richmond Professional Institute — now VCU Arts — that encouraged returning war veterans to study handcrafts with their GI Bill benefits. Forrest left his job as a parole officer to go back to school to study art, and he found a passion for furniture design in the RPI wood shop and the ethos of the American Studio Craft movement.
At RPI, Forrest learned to shape his sculptural works using both traditional joinery techniques and the contemporary stack lamination techniques developed by Wendell Castle, the father of the art furniture movement and mentor to Alan Lazarus, Forrest’s mentor and founder of the woodworking program at RPI.
“Sam could put ideas together, and he was strong,” Lazarus says. “He was as good as a craftsman as he wanted to be. I mean, if he saw somebody do something he really wanted to learn, he could do it. He wasn’t afraid of trying things and using his body and using his hands. He was a natural.”
In 1971, Forrest wrote of his own work, “In one’s atavistic memory, there is the origin not only of design but the feelings from seeing good design. To touch that memory is my endeavor.”
You can see the shadows of Forrest’s memories of growing up on the water in Mathews reflected in his designs, says his longtime friend, Catherine Venable, an artist herself. His Lily Pad and Frog tables are great examples.
Forrest devoted more than 50 years to handcraft woodworking, creating a prolific body of work, from furniture to church altars. Each piece he made was one of a kind, which, according to friends, was a great source of pride. The retrospective exhibition, the first solo museum show of Forrest’s handcrafted designs, brings together 38 remarkable pieces sourced from local collectors, friends and family, many from his last home, the Haiku House in Mathews. “Atavistic Memories: The Studio Furniture of Sam Forrest” is on view at The Branch Museum through April 17.
