Art and Furniture of Tommy Simpson

Oscar P. Fitzgerald, PhD is a nationally known historian, author, lecturer, and consultant on American furniture from colonial times to the present. As a member of the faculty of the Smithsonian Institution/George Washington University Decorative Arts and Design History Masters Program, he teaches all the furniture classes He has shared his passion for furniture with audiences nationwide, including a number of certification seminars for appraisers. Recently, he presented a program on identifying Mid-century Modern furniture fakes at the annual conference of the International Society of Appraisers. His latest publication is the definitive American Furniture Designers: 1900-2020.

Here at last is the full and thoughtful treatment that Tommy Simpson's prolific, six-decade career deserves. Simpson's remarkable work defies categorization – drawing as it does from sculpture, poetry, painting, and even theater – yet its power may be attributed to a single, generous impulse: the wish to inspire joy. Oscar Fitzgerald's sensitive portrait of Simpson and his work not only provides the self-proclaimed 'imaginist' in full, but it also challenges us to re-imagine the history of the Studio Furniture movement as a whole.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsForewordPrefaceChapter 1. Home, Heart and Hand: The Childhood That Shaped Tommy's WorkChapter 2. Life as an “Imaginist"Chapter 3. Painting StoriesChapter 4. Tommy's Furniture and Boxes TooChapter 5. Tommy's Sculptures: Mostly WoodChapter 6. House and HomeChapter 7. Handwoven Rugs and TextilesChapter 8. Whatever Tommy Wanted to Try, He Did: Ceramics, Jewelry, Toys, etc. Even a U.S. Postage Stamp.BibliographyIndex