“Function of design should not be just about whether it is practical or not. Enchantment should also be considered as function.”
—Shiro KuramataThe present Sofa with Arms (single), designed by Kuramata circa 1982, exemplifies a pivotal moment in Kuramata's career. In 1981, Kuramata met Ettore Sottsass while contributing to the Memphis design collective. This encounter between the two design masters prompted a decade-long relationship of collaboration and allowed Kuramata to further reject the strictures of modern design and refresh his previously austere and intellectual approach to design. The present model, along with lot 172, are originally from the Yamagiwa Corporation, a Japanese lighting company, who acquired these works directly from Kuramata for their corporate offices. In 1983, Kuramata was commissioned to design the interiors of the new LIVINA boutiques for Yamagiwa which were meant to celebrate the concept of “Living Art.”
Interior of the Esprit House, 1983. While the present model is strikingly avant-garde in conception and execution. Constructed of slender, chrome-plated tubular steel and upholstered in bright yellow wool fabric by Kvadrat, the sofa on offer has a light and airy presence. Its minimalist structure exposes raw materials and basic forms, yet every element is refined to its most basic form. The bolster cushion backrest is improbably held between the chromium-plated metal frame, creating a strong yet balanced aesthetic tension. Lines, shapes, colors, and textures converge in this piece, establishing Kuramata as “a poet and an artist” who wielded these fundamentals of design to achieve a cerebral, abstract quality in his objects.
Provenance
Yamagiwa Corporation, Tokyo, acquired directly from the artist, circa 1982
Acquired from the above by the present owner, circa 2007Literature
Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, p. 167
Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, illustrated pp. 319, 327Catalogue Essay
Phillips would like to thank Mieko Kuramata for her assistance in cataloguing the present lot.
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).
Property of a Private Tokyo Collector
174
Rare "Sofa with Arms (single)"
circa 1982
Chromium-plated steel, fabric upholstery.
25 3/4 x 25 1/4 x 35 3/5 in. (65.4 x 64.1 x 90.4 cm)
Estimate
$15,000 - 20,000
Sold for $20,320
Benjamin Green
Associate Specialist, Head of Sale, New York
bgreen@phillips.com
+1 212 940 1267
Design
New York Auction 11 December 2024
126
This lot is no longer available.
203
This lot is no longer available.
