Sam Maloof

Master Woodworker and Furniture Maker

January 26 - February 27 2004

"If any arts have lasting beauty, they must certainly exist in utilitarian objects created by people aware of the materials, forms, and colors, and surfaces that please the eye and the body-and consequently live on through the years, growing more mellow and beautiful as time passes."

Sam Maloof

Sam Maloof is America's most widely admired contemporary furniture craftsman. Although his furniture is sculpturally strong and has been exhibited in major museums, he doesn't consider himself an artist, but rather a woodworker and furniture maker. ÒI think woodworker is a very good word. I like the word; it's an honest word. And that is what I am, a woodworker.Ó

The furniture of Sam Maloof has a distinctive style that has evolved steadily over his career. Art at the service of utility is the essence of his philosophy of design. As a result, his work has a timeless and classic aesthetic that is both beautiful and functional.

Considered the father of the studio furniture movement, he has designed furniture for three former U.S. presidents and numerous private and public collections. His work resides in many museum collections including the Smithsonian, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Los Angeles County Museum. He was the first woodworker elected a Fellow of the American Crafts Council and in 1985 he was honored with a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant. Maloof built his current residence of twenty-two rooms, which serves as a museum, workshop and living quarters and has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The California State Legislature has proclaimed him a "Living Treasure of California."

Special thanks to the following for their assistance with the exhibition:

The Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation
Roz Bock
Herb Hafif and The Hafif Family Foundation
Jay Rodriguez
Richard George
The Craft and Folk Art Museum Los Angeles
President Steve Morgan
Diana Towles
Laura Gonzales
Bill and Charlotte Neill
Gary Colby