Shiro Kuramata - Design New York Thursday, June 9, 2016 | Phillips

Design

New York Auction 9 June 2016 

  • Provenance

    Tajan, Paris, "Design," June 6, 2013, lot 4
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, pp. 35, 151
    Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass, exh. cat., 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo, 2011, p. 180

  • 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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Property from a Private Collection

72

Shiro Kuramata

"Solaris" chest of drawers

designed 1977, executed after 1985
Ebonized oak, painted steel, painted metal.
60 1/2 x 55 x 32 1/2 in. (153.7 x 139.7 x 82.6 cm)
Manufactured by Cappellini International Interiors, Arosio, Italy.

Estimate
$8,000 - 12,000 

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Design

New York Auction 9 June 2016