George Nakashima - Design New York Wednesday, June 11, 2014 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Hayahiko Takase, Los Angeles, acquired directly from the designer, 1974
    Thence by descent
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    George Nakashima, The Soul of a Tree, A Woodworker's Reflections, Tokyo, 1981, p. 150 for a drawing
    Mira Nakashima, Nature, Form & Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima, New York, 2003, p. 112

  • Catalogue Essay

    The present lot was originally owned by Hayahiko Takase, a Harvard-trained architect who gained fame for designing landmark buildings that would come to make up the Little Tokyo Historic District in Los Angeles. At the center of one of the largest Japanese-American populations in North America, Little Tokyo was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1995.

  • Artist Biography

    George Nakashima

    American • 1905 - 1990

    Working out of his compound in rural New Hope, Pennsylvania, George Nakashima produced some of the most original and influential furniture designs of the post-war era. Nakashima aimed to give trees a second life, choosing solid wood over veneers and designing his furniture to highlight the inherent beauty of the wood, such as the form and grain. To this end, his tables often feature freeform edges, natural fissures and knot holes. Nakashima was an MIT-trained architect and traveled widely in his youth, gaining exposure to modernist design the world over.

    The signature style he developed was the distillation of extraordinary, diverse experiences, which led to the establishment of his furniture-making business in 1946. In particular, his practice of Integral Yoga, which he studied while working under the architect Antonin Raymond on the construction of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, had a lasting impact on his philosophy as a designer.

    After returning to the U.S. in 1940, Nakashima's family was interned in an American concentration camp, a horrible ordeal that nevertheless introduced him to traditional Japanese joinery by way of a Nisei woodworker he met in the camp. He incorporated these techniques and also drew on American vernacular forms, such as the Windsor chair. These diverse influences have resulted in immense crossover appeal in the world of twentieth-century design collecting.

    View More Works

92

Single-arm rocking chair

1974
Persian walnut, hickory.
33 7/8 x 32 x 28 1/2 in. (86 x 81.3 x 72.4 cm)
Underside signed in black marker with Studio Rocker. Together with a copy of a letter of authenticity from Mira Nakashima and a copy of the original order card.

Estimate
$12,000 - 18,000 

Sold for $15,000

Contact Specialist
Meaghan Roddy
Head of Sale, New York
mroddy@phillips.com
+ 1 212 940 1266

Design

New York Auction 11 June 2014 11am