'Little Aluminium Desk, Blue', Designed and Made by Garry Knox Bennett, ca. 1985-1990
Aluminium, ColorCore and wood

A desk with metal legs and curved open ?compartment underneath the blue laminated top. The outside edges of the table are shaped into a series of curves, the base of the legs mirror this curve detail.

Garry Knox Bennett was a leading American studio furniture maker of the 1980s, and this one-off table is an outstanding example of his work. It is somewhat unusual for him, in its lightness of form and its relatively restrained use of colour. This may be explained by the table's provenance - the desk was commissioned by Sidney and Frances Lewis, two of the leading American collectors of Art Nouveau material.

According to the maker's wife, Sylvia Bennett (correspondence 5 April 2011) the table was made over a period of years, from about 1985 to 1990. This is corroborated by Andy Lewis, the son of the owners, who noted that his parents had waited a long time for the object to be delivered (he said 'eight years,' correspondence 12 April 2011). This positions the piece in the latter half of the 1980s, Bennett's greatest decade of influence and productivity.

Garry Knox Bennett was a leading American studio furniture maker of the 1980s, and this one-off table is a superlative example of his work. Made over several years, from about 1985 to 1990, the table highlights Bennett's technical mastery, and his inventive approach to structure and materials. The design takes full advantage of the possitibilities of aluminium, a very difficult material to work, to create a lightweight, strong and dramatically sculptural form. This is then finished with a bright blue ColorCore top. ColorCore was widely used in the 1980s, after the Formica company commissioned architects (such as Frank Gehry) to experiment with this new material. Unlike traditional plastic laminates, ColorCore is coloured all the way through its depth. This makes it an ideal material for cabinet-making techniques.

W.20-2011