Bub Yoshino beauty salon, Tokyo, 1976
Private collection, Tokyo
'Beauty Parlor Bub', Japan Interior Design, no. 211, October 1976, illustrated p. 79
Arata Isozaki, Ettore Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata 1967-1987, Tokyo, 1988, pp. 4-5 for the armchair from the series
Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, exh. cat., Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1996, p. 123, fig. 8 for the armchair from the series
Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Essays & Writings, London, 2013, p. 51, for a technical drawing and images of armchairs from the series
Deyan Sudjic, Shiro Kuramata: Catalogue of Works, London, 2013, p. 245, figs. 24-26, for the armchairs and sofa from the series, illustrated p. 296, fig. 183
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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