Shiro Kuramata - Design New York Thursday, June 12, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Literature

    Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, p. 19, p. 76, fig. 31, p. 174, fig. 4 and p. 176, fig. 3

  • Catalogue Essay

    “For the legs of this piece, he used a ready-made material that reminds us of ‘fishnet stockings.’  Rather than being used only for rhetorical purposes, the planes of the wire mesh characteristically metamorphose into an aggregate of lines that draw out his design.”  (Oki, Shiro Kuramata, 1939-1991, p. 79)

  • 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).

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113

“Twilight Time” table

ca. 1968
Glass, chrome-plated steel mesh.
26 7/8 x 44 1/4 x 24 3/4 in. (68.3 x 112.4 x 62.9 cm)
Manufactured by Terada Tekkoko, Ltd. and Mihoya Glass Co. Ltd., Japan.

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for $49,000

Design

12 June 2008, 2pm
New York