Paul Hughes Fine Arts, London
'Shiro Kuramata 1987', Idée, Tokyo, 1987, n.p.
Arata Isozaki and Ettore Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata 1967-1987, Tokyo, 1988, front cover and back cover, pp. 98-99, 101 for examples of the chair
Matthias Dietz and Michael Mönninger, Japanese Design, Cologne, 1995, p. 68 for an example of the chair
Kathryn B. Hiesinger and Felice Fischer, Japanese Design: A Survey Since 1950, Philadelphia and New York, 1995, p. 163, fig. 186 for an example of the chair
Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, pp. 2-3, 21, 56-57, 177, 181 for examples of the chair
Ettore Sottsass, 'An Exhibition Dedicated to Shiro Kuramata', Domus, no. 788, December 1996, p. 55, figs. 4-5 for an example of the chair
Alexander von Vegesack, et al., eds., 100 Masterpieces from the Vitra Design Museum Collection, exh. cat., Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 1996, pp. 200-201, no. 85 for an example and a drawing of the chair
Akari Matsuura, Japan Design to the new generation, Japan, 2001, p. 76 for an example of the chair
Phaidon Design Classics, Volume Three, London, 2006, no. 858 for an example of the chair
Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass, exh. cat., 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo, 2011, pp. 58-59, 210 for an example and a drawing of the chair
Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Essays & Writings, London, 2013, pp. 102, 114, 139-40, 161 for examples of the chair
Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, p. 340, no. 445, p. 346, no. 459 for examples of the chair
Japanese • 1934 - 1991
Shiro Kuramata is widely admired for his ability to free his designs from gravity and use materials in ways that defied convention. After a restless childhood, his ideas of being an illustrator having been discouraged, Kuramata discovered design during his time at the Teikoku Kizai Furniture Factory in Arakawa-ku in 1954. The next year he started formal training at the Department of Interior Design at the Kuwasawa Design Institute. His early work centered on commercial interiors and window displays. In 1965, at the age of 31, he opened his own firm: Kuramata Design Office.
Throughout his career he found inspiration in many places, including the work of Italian designers (particularly those embodying the Memphis style) and American conceptual artists like Donald Judd, and combined such inspirations with his own ingenuity and creativity. His dynamic use of materials, particularly those that were transparent, combination of surfaces and awareness of the potential of light in design led him to create objects that stretched structural boundaries and were also visually captivating. These qualities are embodied in his famous Glass Chair (1976).
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