Joseph Schwarte
Gays Mills, Wisconsin
 

Art inspires. It is celebrated for bringing a richness to everyday experience. But Joe Schwarte would prefer that it do even more than that—provide a comfortable place to sit, or to work, or to sleep, perhaps.

In a word, it should be functional too; at least that is what gives him creative satisfaction. It¹s why Joseph Henry Schwarte prefers wood to almost any other medium he’s tried. He makes furniture—cabinets, tables, chairs and even beds.

That could seem to be mundane, he admits. “I realize people can go to Ikea or Wal-Mart for the kind of pieces I make. I try to bring something extra to what I make, and I feel very lucky that some people see that.”

They would also see, it should be noted, that Schwarte has a remarkable ability to combine clean design, precise joinery and the spectacular juxtaposition of woods to produce some breathtaking work. That’s a lot of “extra” for most folks.

So, where does one go to learn how to make that something extra? If you are serious about learning where Schwarte gets the inspiration for his work, be prepared to take notes because the list is long and quite diverse.

It begins with his grandfathers. One was an architect of Dutch and German heritage who built churches, the other an Italian-born cabinetmaker born Giovanni Baptisté Baciagaluppi, who Americanized himself as John Rogers.

Then there were the men whose work fascinated Schwarte as a young adult.  There were artists in his native Chicago, like Ed Paschke and Frank Rowland.  And there are a host of workers in wood and other media that he has admired over the years, men like Gerrit Reitveld; George Nakashima; Henry Moore, the sculptor; Frank LaSalle; James Krenov, and more recently, Len Cullum. And don¹t forget, he adds, the Italian woodworkers and sculptors of the 1950s, who worked in combinations of wood and metal.

Schwarte gives special credit to Paschke and to artist and accomplished woodworker and close friend, Tim Anderson. Both, he says, urged him to explore the potential of his talent. Schwarte remembers that Anderson gave him a copy of Fine Woodworking Design Book Four as a birthday present in

1987 and inscribed it, “Joe: Here¹s to seeing you in Design Book Five. Happy Birthday, Tim.”

Anderson was prescient. A Schwarte piece was indeed featured in Design Book Five, and, one might say, his reputation was made. He has since developed a clientele throughout the United States.

Joe Schwarte, a self-described “European mutt,” was born in 1946, in Chicago, the only boy among five children to Bill and Louise Schwarte. An indifferent student, he attended Wright Junior College for a year, then took a job as a stock boy in a Jewel supermarket near his Albany Park neighborhood. Then he worked for a plumber and in a variety of other construction trades and even tried working as the attendant at the Kiddieland amusement park.

The draft board beckoned in 1966 and Schwarte did a stint in the Army. He returned to civilian life, now a single parent and began contemplating a return to school on the GI Bill, this time to study art or perhaps architecture. But he continued to make his living in the construction trades.

An interesting thing began to happen, he says. Clients began responding to design suggestions he¹d make. “They liked my ideas better than those in the blueprints.” He started taking on projects of his own and hired Tim Anderson, an accomplished cabinetmaker, to assist. Schwarte, in turn, assisted Anderson in setting up exhibitions of the work of Anderson and other artists.

That¹s when Anderson¹s prediction came true and Schwarte began to believe that he had found his professional niche. His personal life was looking up too. He and his second wife, Christie Knapp, were now raising a new son, Jack, and they began looking for a simpler lifestyle.

Their search for a new home led them to an 18-acre site a short distance from the village of Gays Mills. The attraction: the Driftless area¹s natural beauty and the abundant supply of quality hardwoods.

Schwarte was hesitant about cutting his Chicago ties at first but has warmed to his “new” surroundings and is proud, and grateful, that his growing clientele is balanced between that of Wisconsinites and those of old friends and admirers in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. He is looking forward to being a first-time exhibitor in the 2009 Driftless Area Art Festival.

To this day, Schwarte insists he is a better designer than craftsman. And he deflects questions about how his work fits in the world of art. “I don¹t even want to go there,” he says.

Where do his ideas come from these days? He likes to answer that question by quoting a famous line of songwriter, Sammy Cahn. “What comes first, the words or the music? Neither. More often than not it all starts with a phone call.”

Interview by Brad Niemcek
Photos courtesy of Brad Niemcek and Joe Schwarte