Miriam Chester, Washington, acquired directly from the artist, 1980
Rago Auctions, Lambertville, New Jersey, 'Modern', 25 April 2009, lot 301
Bethany Belanger, Port Huron, Michigan
DuMouchelles, Detroit, Michigan, 17 November 2023, lot 1023
Private collection, Gloucestershire
George Wald, The Soul of a Tree: A Woodworker's Reflections, Tokyo, 1981, pp. 174-75, 179, 185 for similar examples
Derek E. Ostergard, George Nakashima: Full Circle, exh. cat., American Craft Museum, New York, 1989, p. 125 for a similar example
George Nakashima Woodworkers, catalogue, New Hope, 2001, pp. 5, 10-11 for similar examples
Mira Nakashima, Nature Form & Spirit: The Life and Legacy of George Nakashima, New York, 2003, pp. 166-67 for similar examples
Rachel Delphia, Nakashima Revealed: The Carnegie Mellon Collection, exh cat., Regina Gouger Miller Gallery, Pittsburgh, 2007, pp. 38-41 for similar examples
George Nakashima Woodworker, catalogue, New Hope, 2008, pp. 18, 21 for similar examples
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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