Sam Maloof (1916-2009)

Samuel Solomon Maloof was a furniture designer and woodworker extraordinaire.  Few modern masters have had more of their work emulated or outright copied than he. 

He was born Chino, CA., the seventh of nine children to first generation Lebanese immigrant parents.  In high school, he took his first shop class and even then, his teacher noted his exceptional skill.  Soon after graduating high school in 1934, he began working as a graphic artist in the art department of the Vortox Manufacturing Company in Claremont, California.  In late 1941, Sam was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in the Aleutian Islands of the Pacific theater where he drew artillery emplacements.  He also did a tour in Alaska.  He was discharged from service in 1945.

Upon returning to Southern California, he began working as an assistant to Millard Sheets, a well-known painter and designer.  Sheets was also head of the art department at Scripps College in Claremont.  In 1947, Sam met the love of his life, Alfreda Ward, outside Sheets' classroom on campus.  Ward was a Masters of Fine Arts candidate at Scripps.  A teacher and artist, she had been the Director of Arts and Crafts at the Santa Fe Indian School in New Mexico between 1938 and 1941.  The school was founded in 1890 as a boarding school for Native American children from the state's Indian Pueblos.  Anyway, "Freda" had been a U.S. Navy WAVE during WWII, and was a UCLA graduate.  Sam and Freda were married in 1948.  Freda introduced Sam to Native American art and together they became part of the artist culture of the colleges in the Claremont area.

After they were married, money was tight!  The newlyweds didn't have enough money to furnish their first small house.  They say that the mother of invention is necessity, so Maloof taught himself to design and build furniture and became a furniture maker to furnish his home. 

"She bought a little tract house for $4,200, which now is probably worth about $400,000," Maloof chuckles. "It didn't have a lot of furniture in it. Plywood floors, no carpeting or anything. And so I put rugs down, and then I found a lot of scrap wood, and I made furniture out of it for the house."  (Ulaby)

He found some discarded fir plywood and oak shipping crates, borrowed some tools, and set up shop in the garage of their Ontario, CA home.  He built a room divider that had an attached table and benches.  Shortly, friends began asking for copies of his simple furniture and Freda strongly encouraged him to start his own business.  So, beginning in 1949, Sam started taking commissions and building furniture in the garage and Freda became the business' manager, a job she did until she passed away.  In 1951, Better Homes and Gardens published an article Sam.  The article had plans and photographs of Sam's furniture along with ideas on how readers could furnish and decorate their homes economically.  In 1952, the Maloofs relocated to Alta Loma, CA. where Sam built a studio to continue his woodworking.  Amazingly, Sam says his shop generated no profits for the first 20 years.

Sam Maloof was a gifted calligrapher and an accomplished artists.  Indeed, he had earned a living as a graphics artist in the beginning of his adult life.  But, he was a self-taught woodworker.  Parts were typically roughed out freehand on a bandsaw, and anyone who ever witnessed him at work was truly fearful for his safety...  He wouldn't even let his long time shop help use a saw the way he did.  It was down right scary!  The final shape of his furniture was always refined by hand with simple tools the way artisans have done for eons.  He never wanted his name associated with mass production.  He turned down multimillion dollar offers to stamp his name on factory made furniture on more than one occasion.  No, Sam Maloof, the craftsman, simply worked in his shop to shape and fit hardwood (particularly walnut) for his chairs, tables, cradles, his signature rockers, and more.  He did it one piece at a time to make sure his furniture was functional, comfortable, and beautiful.

Maloof's furniture was hard to pigeon hole into a specific style.  It wasn't modern, Scandinavian, or Italian.  It wasn't Arts & Crafts.  In the 1950s, the simplicity and practicality of his furniture was highly valued by his Southern California customers.  It wasn't until later that his furniture became praised and prized by collectors and museum curators for its beautiful curves and graceful lines.

Maloof's furniture is in the permanent collections of several major American museums, including Boston's Museum of Fine Arts, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles' County Museum of Art, Philadelphia's Museum of Art, and at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian's American Art Museum. 

Additionally, some of the awards he's won over the years include:
First woodworker elected as a fellow of the American Craft Council,
First recipient of a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant,
MacArthur Foundation "Genius" grant and fellowship in 1985,
First piece of contemporary furniture selected for the White House Collection in 1982,
Honorary Doctorate from the Rhode Island School of Design,
Honorary Doctorate from Aurora University in Illinois, and
Honorary Doctorate from California State University at San Bernardino.

He has been described as "America's most renowned contemporary furniture craftsman" by the Smithsonian Institute and "The Hemingway of Hardwood" by People Magazine.  Even Ray Charles got in on the action.  Maloof told the story in an interview...

"Ray Charles couldn't see my furniture, but he said he could feel that it had soul.  When he asked about my rocker, his host told him 'That's a chair made by Sam Maloof.'  Ray ran his hands over the wood shouting, 'I know this man!  I know this man!' 

On his next visit, the first thing Ray Charles said was, 'I'd like to touch that furniture again that Sam Maloof made.' " (Azar)

Even with the weight of the world on their shoulders, U.S. Presidents have also used his furniture for moments of quiet contemplation and maybe even relaxation.  Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton have all owned Maloof rocking chairs as sitting presidents.

Few artisans achieve the fame, recognition, and legendary status that Sam Maloof had, especially in their own lifetime.  One would think that a certain level of ego would come with that, but he was somewhat self effacing and never bought in to all the hype.  His autobiography and business card simply read "Sam Maloof, Woodworker".  His work has been copied my many serious woodworkers, and many make a good living selling reproductions of his work.  And for Sam Maloof, it was more than the "sincerest form of flattery."  He never turned down a chance to teach and often gave lectures.  He had the reputation of being one of the most down-to-earth and approachable people one could meet. 

Maloof designed and built all types of furniture, but his signature piece was the Maloof rocker.  At the time of his death, his rockers were selling for roughly $20,000.00, but by the end of the same year, gallery prices for his rockers had reached a staggering $40,000.00. 

For those of us that lived in his lifetime (and shadow), he will be missed.

Resources

Photo courtesy of Sam Maloof

Azar, George Baramki.  Soul of the Hardwood.  1988. 
<http://azar.yvod.com/mej/Sam.Maloof.html>.  (30 Oct. 2009).

Ulaby, Neda.  "Carved Success: Sam Maloof's Handmade Life."  National Public Radio.  2009. 
<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103340463>.  (30 Oct. 2009).

"History." and linked articles.  The Sam and Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts & Crafts.  2003. 
<http://malooffoundation.org/history.cfm>.  (30 Oct. 2009).

Maloof, Sam.  Sam Maloof, Woodworker
Tokyo.  Kodansha International.  1989.  ISBN-10:  0870119109,    ISBN-13:  978-0870119101

Adamson, Jeremy and Sam Maloof.  The Furniture of Sam Maloof
New York.  W.W. Norton & Co.  2001.  ISBN-10:  0393730808,    ISBN-13:  978-0393730807