George Nakashima - Design: Online Auction New York Tuesday, February 7, 2023 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Nell Bendell, Solebury, Pennsylvania, acquired directly from the artist, 1956
    Private collection
    Wright, Chicago, "Design," October 24, 2019, lot 233
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Mira Nakashima, Nature, Form & Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima, New York, 2003, p. 84 for a similar example

  • 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.

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Property from a Private International Collection

12

Five-drawer chest of drawers

1956
American black walnut.
37 3/4 x 36 x 18 3/4 in. (95.9 x 91.4 x 47.6 cm)
Executed by George Nakashima Woodworker, New Hope, Pennsylvania. Together with a copy of the original invoice.

Estimate
$5,000 - 7,000 

Sold for $8,190

Contact Specialist

Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist
Associate Head of Sale
+1 917 207 9090
bgreen@phillips.com

Design: Online Auction

Online Auction 7 - 14 February 2023