By RIMA SUQI
Published: October 17, 2012

The eminent furniture designer Wendell Castle will turn 80 next month, and it seems everyone is celebrating. The first of four solo shows between now and year’s end opens Saturday at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn. Called “Wendell Castle: Wandering Forms — Works from 1959-1979,” the exhibit includes many items in private collections that haven’t been seen in decades.

Two other shows, both in New York City, “Wendell Castle: Volumes and Voids” (Barry Friedman Ltd., Oct. 25 to Jan. 26) and “Wendell Castle: A New Environment” (Friedman Benda, Dec. 12 to Jan. 26), will feature new work that Mr. Castle said he executed in “quite a different vocabulary.”

And there’s “Wendell Castle: Form Within Forms — The 21st Century,” which opens at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft in Louisville on Nov. 29.

Not only can you see the full breadth of Mr. Castle’s designs, you can also read about them. A 500-page catalogue raisonné of 1,700 works will be published by the Artist Book Foundation in April 2013. It closely follows the Aldrich exhibition catalog “Wendell Castle: Wandering Forms,” by Alastair Gordon (due out in November from Gregory R. Miller & Co.), the first book in more than two decades devoted to the designer’s early years and particularly to his maiden pieces in wood and fiberglass.

What are Mr. Castle’s views of the impending milestone? “It’s weird,” he said. “I have no idea what 80 feels like but I certainly do not feel old. I have all my hair and I still play a very good game of tennis three times a week, year-round, with guys 30 to 40 years younger than I am.”

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is at 258 Main Street, Ridgefield, Conn.; (203) 438-4519, aldrichart.org.