Shiro Kuramata - Design Evening Sale New York Tuesday, December 13, 2016 | Phillips

Design Evening Sale

New York Auction 13 December 2016

  • Provenance

    Livina Yamagiwa, Tokyo, 1990s
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Ko Tanaka, ed., Star piece: sketch of image by Shiro Kuramata, Tokyo, 1991, p. 47 for a drawing
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, p. 359 for a similar example

  • Catalogue Essay

    Phillips would like to thank the Kuramata Design Office for their assistance 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).

    View More Works

Property from an Important Collection, Tokyo

426

Shiro Kuramata

Rare side chair, from the Livina Yamagiwa showroom, Tokyo

designed 1982
Acrylic, painted steel, vinyl.
35 x 22 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. (88.9 x 57.2 x 49.5 cm)
Manufactured by Ishimaru Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

Estimate
$15,000 - 20,000 

Sold for $68,750

Contact Specialist
Cordelia Lembo
Specialist, Head of Sale
+1 212 940 1265

Design Evening Sale

New York Auction 13 December 2016