Paul Evans

Paul Evans (1931-1987) was born in Pennsylvania, North America and is one of the most important Twentieth Century furniture designers. He studied sculpture, metalwork, silver and goldsmithing at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Working with metal was his great love and he began making metal furniture which he exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Cratfts in New York in 1957. In 1964 he was appointed designer to the furniture maker Directional and his imagination knew no bounds. He worked with burl wood, often combining it with metal, making furniture that was sculpture in its own right. Other pieces were of a more brutal style in welded metal sometimes decorated with abstract sculptural elements, such as the sculpted bronze series, whilst other metal pieces, notably the popular city scape series, were more subdued.Many pieces were signed or initialled and often dated. On November 16 2007 a small cabinet from 1960 hich combined sculptural metal with wood sold at Sothebys for $157,000.