Shiro Kuramata - Design Day Sale London Wednesday, April 27, 2016 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Pastoe, the Netherlands, gifted by the designer, circa 1986
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    'Shiro Kuramata 1987', Idée, sales catalogue, Tokyo, 1987, n.p.
    Arata Isozaki and Ettore Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata 1967-1987, Tokyo, 1988, p. 104
    Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, p. 180, fig. 3
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, p. 344, fig. 455

  • 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

159

Early 'Expanded Metal Chair', model no B.I.-86

circa 1986
Painted steel mesh, painted tubular steel.
85 x 52.5 x 57 cm (33 1/2 x 20 5/8 x 22 1/2 in.)
Manufactured by Terada Tekkojo for Idée, Tokyo, Japan.

Estimate
£2,500 - 3,500 

Sold for £3,125

Contact Specialist
Madalena Horta e Costa
Head of Sale
+44 20 7318 4019

Design Day Sale

London Auction 28 April 2016