Shiro Kuramata - Design London Wednesday, September 30, 2015 | Phillips

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  • Literature

    'Shiro Kuramata 1987', Idée, Tokyo, 1987, n.p. for the chair
    Arata Isozaki and Ettore Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata 1967-1987, Tokyo, 1988, pp. 102, 120-21 for the chair
    Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, p. 181, fig. 6, p. 184, fig. 4 for the chair
    Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass, exh. cat., 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo, 2011, p. 197 for the chair
    Gert Staal and Anne ven der Zwaag, Pastoe 100 years of design innovation, Rotterdam, 2013, pp. 112, 218
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, p. 343, fig. 453 for the chair

  • Artist Biography

    Shiro Kuramata

    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).

    View More Works

74

Pair of 'three-legged B' chairs, model no. R108 and table, model no. T8008

designed 1986
Chromium-plated tubular metal, oak-veneered plywood.
Each chair: 76.5 x 46.3 x 47.2 cm (30 1/8 x 18 1/4 x 18 5/8 in.)
Table: 75.5 cm (29 3/4 in.) high, 38 cm (14 7/8 in.) diameter

Manufactured by UMS Pastoe bv, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Underside of chairs with manufacturer's plastic label PASTOE/DUTCH DESIGN.

Estimate
£8,000 - 12,000 

Sold for £8,750

Contact Specialist
Madalena Horta e Costa
Head of Sale
+44 20 7318 4019

Design

London Auction 1 October 2015