THE THINKING OF THE BODY

In THE THINKING OF THE BODY, Esterly brings together his thoughts on life, on carving, on beauty and more, with a philosopher’s intellect and a poet’s grace.

After obtaining a PhD from Cambridge University, David Esterly planned a life in academia, until a fateful encounter with Grinling Gibbons’s awe inspiring carvings in St. James Cathedral in London changed the course of his life. So began a lifelong passion for carving: its physical rhythms, its beauty; its intellectual demands.

More than forty years later, Esterly— a self-taught carver—is now the foremost master of Gibbons’ forgotten technique, which revolutionized ornamental sculpture in the late 1600s with its spectacular cascades of flowers, fruits and foliage. Esterly’s recognized expertise on Gibbons led to a year spent replicating the work – and inhabiting the mind—of his long-dead master when he was asked to replace a Gibbons’ carving destroyed in a devastating fire at Hampton Court Palace. Although the dream of any acolyte, emulating his idol’s work turned out to be the greatest challenge of Esterly’s life, forcing him to question his abilities and pitting him against a formidable bureaucracy, seemingly bent on curtailing his efforts at giving the public a true vision of Gibbons’ genius. David will be included – as a commentator and carver – in a three-film series on woodworking in Britain produced by the BBC to air in December 2012. This series will be similar to the popular 2011 BBC films on the history of ceramics. David Esterly is the author of Grinling Gibbons and the Art of Carving (published by the V & A). He has also written numerous articles and reviews in The Spectator, the TLS, The Independent Magazine, The Sunday Telegraph, Apollo, The Burlington Magazine, House and Garden, Traditional Home, and others. He has been a professional limewood carver since the 1970s and has been profiled in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Times, The Financial Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, Apollo, on the Martha Stewart Show and on BBC Channel 4, as well as in numerous woodworking, design, arts, and similar publications.