Shiro Kuramata - Design New York Wednesday, December 17, 2014 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Tajan, Paris, "Arts Dècoratifs du xxe Siècle & Design," March 6, 2012, lot 225
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Arata Isozaki, Ettore Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata 1967-1987, Tokyo, 1988, p. 29
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, p. 256
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Essays & Writings, London, 2013 pp. 44, 155

  • 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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PRIVATE COLLECTION

270

"Dinah" chest of drawers

designed 1970
Painted steel, painted wood.
69 1/4 x 21 1/4 x 19 5/8 in. (175.9 x 54 x 49.8 cm)
Manufactured by Cappellini, Italy.

Estimate
$10,000 - 15,000 

Contact Specialist
Meaghan Roddy
Head of Sale
New York
+ 1 212 940 1266

Design

New York Auction 17 December 2014 11am