Shiro Kuramata - Design London Tuesday, September 23, 2014 | Phillips
  • Literature

    Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, fig. 24
    Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata, New York, 2013, p. 175 for a drawing, p. 346, fig. 478

  • 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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309

'Just in Time' clock, designed for the 'Clocks by 31 Artists' exhibition, Tokyo

1986
Melamine board, twigs, wool yarn, nylon string.
52 x 37 x 7.5 cm (20 1/2 x 14 5/8 x 2 7/8 in.)
Reverse with paper label signed in black ink Shiro Kuramata.

Estimate
£4,000 - 6,000 

Sold for £3,750

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Ben Williams
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Design

London 24 September 2014 2pm