Lot 13: Jon Brooks , "Styx Ladderback" Chair carved and painted birch

1985 incised with artist's signature and date carved and painted birch

measurements note 85 7/8 in. (218.1 cm) high

Paul J. Smith and Edward Lucie-Smith, Craft Today: Poetry of the Physical, New York, 1986, fig. 108
"Furniture With Forests In Mind," Interiors, April 1994, p. 80 (for a similar example)
Craig Bloodgood, "Shaker Inspiration," American Craft, February/March, 2001, p. 92 (for a similar example)
Robin Rice, "Jon Brooks," American Craft, Aug./Sept. 2003, p. 73 (for a similar work with the same carved decorative scheme)
Jonathan Holmes, "Convergence: Crossing the Divide," Craft Arts International, Summer 2005, p. 109 (for a similar example)

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner

PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF STEPHEN A. GLASSMAN
Variants of this unique form are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Art and Design in New York and The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH. Similar examples have traveled throughout the United States and Europe as part of two major museum exhibitions entitled Poetry of The Physical and Craft Today USA. Jon Brooks lives in New Hampshire surrounded by his art, where he creates bold curvilinear sculptural designs accentuated with a close attention to the carved graffiti-like surface treatment. Blurring the line between art and design, the early examples of the "Styx" chairs, including the current lot, lack seats, creating a true sculptural form.