A celebrated master of contemporary American metalwork, Albert Paley is acclaimed for his dynamic contortions of the medium. Trained as a goldsmith, Paley began his career designing jewelry that emphasized its relation to the body, works that were later referred to as “wearable sculptures.” Shortly after his faculty appointment to the School for American Craftsmen at Rochester Institute of Technology in 1969, Paley opened his metalworking studio and began to explore the boundaries of production in iron. In 1974 the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum commissioned Paley for iron gates, propelling him into the realm of architectural recognition. Designing both decorative arts and monumental public commissions, Paley draws on the visual language of the Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau periods, though he has pronounced the process of forging itself as his most salient influence. The present console table indeed conjures the floral motifs of Art Nouveau; however, its persistently undulating lines, which create a sense of perpetual animation, proclaim its singularity. Major American institutions carry works from Paley’s œuvre, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Art and Design, New York; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.