George Nakashima - Design New York Wednesday, December 12, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Dr. Arthur and Evelyn Krosnick, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
    Phillips de Pury & Company, New York, ‘Design’, December 13, 2007, lot 50

  • Literature

    George Nakashima, The Soul of a Tree, A Woodworker’s Reflections, Tokyo, 1981, p. 178 for a similar example
    Mira Nakashima, Nature, Form & Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima, New York, 2003, p. 174 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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166

Wall-mounted cabinet

circa 1958
American black walnut, Pandanus cloth.
14 1/4 x 47 7/8 x 13 1/4 in (36.1 x 121.7 x 33.6 cm)
Underside signed in red crayon 'Krosnick'.

Estimate
$8,000 - 10,000 

Sold for $8,750

Design

12 December 2012
New York