Yoichi Ohira - Design London Tuesday, November 9, 2021 | Phillips

Design

London Auction 9 November 2021

  • Provenance

    Barry Friedman, Ltd., New York, acquired directly from the artist
    Private collection, Washington
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Exhibited

    'Venice. 3 Visions in Glass: Cristiano Bianchin, Yoichi Ohira, Laura de Santillana', Barry Friedman Ltd., New York, October 29, 2009-February 13, 2010

  • Artist Biography

    Yoichi Ohira

    Japanese • 1946

    Glass art – hard, fragile, cold and often heavy – is not typically designed to be handled. Yoichi Ohira's luminous blown glass vessels, however, offer an exception to this trend. They are small and light enough to be turned in one's hands like a Wunderkammer specimen, inviting the viewer to admire his abstracted design vocabulary of gemstones, polished ivory, veined rocks, shimmering water, agate, moss and lichens. Ohira has been compared to Emile Gallé for his ability to emulate the natural world in glass. Comparisons may also be drawn to Jean Dunand's bronze vessels, Japanese rokusho patina and Otto Natzler's volcanic glazes – an impressive range of media to be translated into glass.

    Yoichi Ohira graduated from the Kuwasawa Design School, Tokyo in 1969. Shortly thereafter he took up a glassblowing apprenticeship at the Kagami Crystal Company, Ltd. In 1973 Ohira moved to Venice to study at the Accademia di Belle Arti; he graduated in 1978 earning the highest possible grade for his thesis, "The Aesthetics of Glass." In the late 1980s Ohira began collaborating with Murano glassmakers, earning the "Premio Selezione" of the Premio Murano in 1987.

    View More Works

288

Yoichi Ohira

'Silenzio' vase, from the 'Metamorfosi' series

1999
Hand-blown glass canes with murrine, polished and ground surface.
24.8 cm (9 3/4 in.) high
Executed by Livio Serena, master glassblower, Murano, Italy. Underside incised Yoichi Ohira/m° L. Serena/1 / 1 unico/Friday 25-06-1999/murano and with artist's cipher.

Estimate
£6,000 - 8,000 ‡

Sold for £8,820

Contact Specialist

Antonia King
Head of Sale, Design
Antonia.King@phillips.com

Design

London Auction 9 November 2021