Alexandre Noll
1890-1970
"Working exclusively in wood, Alexandre Noll spent his lifetime exploring the material’s possibilities, creating his earthy and sensual sculpture, furniture and utilitarian objects from small-scale vessels to larger-scale cabinets and chairs that strike a wonderful balance between modern and primitive forms."
from art and auction article here:
"But many feel the greatest lure of Noll’s work is the mystique surrounding it. You can picture him humbly toiling away, carving a single chair from a huge block of the wood he so adored: teak, rosewood, ebony, mahogany, elm, beech, walnut — even, during the Second World War, when wood was rationed, scavenged railway ties. "Everything he made was sculpture, really," says Grajales wistfully. "When you come across a Noll piece, you feel an immediate urge to touch it, to stroke it gently. There’s not much art you can say that about."