Legendary Furniture Designer Sam Maloof Dies at 93
by brooklynmodern | May 27th, 2009
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif.—Sam Maloof, 93, furniture craftsman and designer, died at his home in Southern California on May 21, reports the L.A. Times. Described by the Smithsonian Institution as “America’s most renowned contemporary furniture craftsman” and with a career spanning six decades, Maloof was known for shaping hardwood without nails or metal hardware into simple and modern pieces of furniture. His admirers included singer Ray Charles and former President Jimmy Carter, who used Maloof’s signature rocking chairs in the White House. In 1985, he became the first craftsman to receive a MacArthur Foundation grant. In 1957, the American Craft Museum in New York showed Maloof’s furniture in its first exhibition of studio-craft furniture. His work is in the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Arts & Design and Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. His former home in Alta Loma, California, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and attracts 3,000 visitors a year.
Click here to visit the Maloof Foundation. Plus, here’s a thorough piece on him from This Old House. Below, Renee Russo pals around with Maloof.
