Shiro Kuramata - Design London Wednesday, September 26, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Cappellini International Interiors, Milan
    Private collection, Italy, 1991

  • Literature

    ko Tanaka, ed., Star piece: sketch of image by Shiro Kuramata, Tokyo, 1991, for sketches throughout
    Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, pp. 26-27, 39-40 fig. 1, p. 48,p. 187, fig. 8, p. 192 , fig. 4
    Alexander von Vegesack, et al., eds., 100 Masterpieces from the Vitra Design Museum Collection, exh. cat., Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, 1996, pp. 204-05, no. 87
    Ettore Sottsass, An Exhibition Dedicated to Shiro Kuramata, Milan, 1996, pp. 53-56
    Domus (Milan), no. 858, April 2003, p. 121
    Jean-Louis Gaillemin, ed., Design Contre Design: Deux siècles de créations, exh. cat., Galerie Nationale du Grand Palais, Paris, 2007, p. 301
    Glenn Adamson; Jane Pavitt, eds., Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970-1990, London, 2011, p. 152

  • Catalogue Essay

    Miss Blanche was designed in 1988 and produced from 1989. In 1998 the production of the chair ended with the 56th chair to honor Kuramata who died at the of 56.

  • 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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'Miss Blanche' chair

designed 1988, executed 1991
Acrylic, synthetic roses, painted tubular aluminium.
91 x 63 x 60.5 cm (35 7/8 x 24 3/4 x 23 7/8 in)
Manufactured by Ishimaru Co., Japan. Number 21 from the edition of 56. Together with a certificate of authenticity from Mieko Kuramata.

Estimate
£150,000 - 200,000 

Sold for £241,250

Design

27 September 2012
London