Shiro Kuramata - Important Design London Wednesday, April 25, 2018 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Wright, Chicago, 'Modern Design', 20 March 2005, lot 112
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    Matthias Dietz and Michael Mönninger, Japanese Design, Cologne, 1995, pp. 77-79
    Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, p. 74, fig. 29, pp. 195-96, fig. 4
    'Kuramata's Tokyo', Domus, no. 858, April 2003, p. 114
    Jean-Louis Gaillemin, ed., Design Contre Design: Deux siècles de créations, exh. cat., Galerie Nationale du Grand Palais, Paris, 2007, p. 288
    Jason T. Bush, ed., Decorative Arts and Design Collection Highlights, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, 2009, p. 196
    Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass, exh. cat., 21_21 Design Sight, Tokyo, 2011, pp. 74-76, p. 211, fig. 34
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Essays & Writings, London, 2013, p. 107
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, p. 379, no. 611, p. 380, fig. 612

  • 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

113

'Acrylic stool', designed for the Spiral boutique, The Axis Building, Roppongi, Tokyo

designed 1990
Acrylic, dyed Mallard feathers, aluminium.
53.5 x 33 x 40.8 cm (21 1/8 x 12 7/8 x 16 1/8 in.)
Manufactured by Ishimaru Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan.

Estimate
£30,000 - 50,000 Ω

Sold for £37,500

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

Important Design

London Auction 26 April 2018