Shiro Kuramata - Design Evening Sale London Monday, April 27, 2015 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Paul Hughes Fine Arts, London

  • Literature

    'Shiro Kuramata 1987', Idée, Tokyo, 1987, n.p.
    Arata Isozaki and Ettore Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata 1967-1987, Tokyo, 1988, front cover and back cover, pp. 98-99, 101 for examples of the chair
    Matthias Dietz and Michael Mönninger, Japanese Design, Cologne, 1995, p. 68 for an example of the chair
    Kathryn B. Hiesinger and Felice Fischer, Japanese Design: A Survey Since 1950, Philadelphia and New York, 1995, p. 163, fig. 186 for an example of the chair
    Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, pp. 2-3, 21, 56-57, 177, 181 for examples of the chair
    Ettore Sottsass, 'An Exhibition Dedicated to Shiro Kuramata', Domus, no. 788, December 1996, p. 55, figs. 4-5 for an example of the chair
    Alexander von Vegesack, et al., eds., 100 Masterpieces from the Vitra Design Museum Collection, exh. cat., Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 1996, pp. 200-201, no. 85 for an example and a drawing of the chair
    Akari Matsuura, Japan Design to the new generation, Japan, 2001, p. 76 for an example of the chair
    Phaidon Design Classics, Volume Three, London, 2006, no. 858 for an example of the chair
    Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass, exh. cat., 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo, 2011, pp. 58-59, 210 for an example and a drawing of the chair
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Essays & Writings, London, 2013, pp. 102, 114, 139-40, 161 for examples of the chair
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, p. 340, no. 445, p. 346, no. 459 for examples of the chair

  • 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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229

Rare 'How High the Moon' two-seater sofa

circa 1986
Copper-plated steel mesh, copper-plated steel.
72.1 x 149.2 x 82.6 cm (28 3/8 x 58 3/4 x 32 1/2 in.)
Manufactured by Terada Tekkojo for Idée, Tokyo, Japan. 1 of approximately 7 examples produced in copper from the edition of 30.

Estimate
£40,000 - 60,000 Ω

Contact Specialist
Meaghan Roddy
Head of Sale
New York
+44 20 7318 4027

Design Evening Sale

London Evening Sale 28 April 2015 6pm