Shiro Kuramata

designed in 1976, this work is from an edition of 40

Japan, Tokyo, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, June - September 1996
Mexico, Mexico City, Centro Cultural/Arte Contemporaneo A.C., April - June 1997
USA, San Francisco, Museum of Modern Art, August - December 1997
USA, New York, Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, February - May 1998
Canada, Montreal, Musée des Arts Décoratifs de Montreal, June - September 1998
France, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, October - December 1998
Austria, Vienna, Österreichisches Museum fur Angewandte Kunst, January - March 1999
Japan, Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, June - August 1999

Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991, Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, 1996, pp. 24, 42, 43 and 149
C. and P. Fiell, Domus, vol. VIII, 1975-1979, Cologne, Germany, 2006, p. 366
A. Isozaki, S. Kuramata, E. Sottsass, Shiro Kuramata 1967-1987, Tokyo, Japan, 1988, p. 57

"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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Japanese Design

The typical words to describe contemporary Japanese furniture – “minimalist” and “simple” – are greatly reductive, and narrow the scope and excitement that is rife in this realm.  Contemporary Japanese furniture is filled with tension, exhilaration, and a struggle within artistic and spacial limitations.  Designers such as Shiro Kuramata and Nendo (Oki Sato) bring the aesthetics of the furniture to uncharted waters as they play with traditional dimension, use of colour, cultural norms, and functionality.  Japanese furniture today proves that they are a far cry from the merely simple and zen. 

The aesthetic of Japanese design is seething with tension.  One such form of tension comes in the opposed forces of the West and the indigenous Japanese.  While postwar reorganization rebuilt Japanese design to imitate the West for a period, the notion of imitation was swiftly replaced by the 1960s when there was a return to traditional forms that remain within the contemporary standards of design today.  This includes a focus on detail, miniaturization, and portability (as in the fixture of wheels common in the structure of recent designer furniture).  However, the Japanese aesthetic embraced the West thoroughly: the post-war generation of designers like Shiro Kuramata and Toshiyuki Kita entirely incorporated Western concepts, producing chairs that were highly lifted (unlike the typical low-lying structure of the traditional), and at times adjustable and colourful, deviating from the traditional style of low seated, muted colours of the Japanese interior.  Designers like Kuramata were experimental.  They twisted the use of common materials, such as acrylic, chipboard, or steel mesh and instead built structures with laminated birch plywood, lacquered metal, and lacquered wood. 

Another manifestation of Japanese influence against the tide of Westernism and the avant-garde is seen in the structural nature of the physical furniture in contemporary Japanese design.  Culturally, the Japanese traditionally sit on the floor, and furniture is thus close to the ground.  This applies to sofas, chairs, tatamis, and cushions.  Thus, we see many forms of low-seated chairs in contemporary Japan, as in Shigeru Uchida’s furniture for the Palazzo hotel in Fukuoko of 1989, designed in collaboration with Italian designers Aldo Rossi and Ettore Sottsass, employing low furniture close to the ground.  Moreover, there is an inherent respect for nature in customary Japan, and this is seen in the widespread use of bamboo and wood, as well as paper – a derivative of wood.  Even the shape of some contemporary Japanese design refers to the traditionally organic: Nendo’s (Oki Sato’s) Cabbage Chair, is constructed in a horticultural, cabbage shape, and crafts the material into detailed, miniaturized paper pleats which are decidedly Japanese.  In fact, with the Cabbage Chair, Nendo was responding to Issey Miyake’s request to consider waste-bound materials from Miyake’s pleats-making, addressing contemporary issues of global environmental harm – another reference to traditional Japanese style engaging the rest of the world into its scene.  Evidently, the tension between the customary Japanese and the new is endemic in the design scene.  Fantasy, imagination, and the make-believe work in tandem with the opposing forces of traditional form and functionality. 

A thrilling opposition in the design scene is the minimalist versus the dramatic detail.  The tension between the minimalist and boldness is seen in the works of many key designers, stretching the definition of minimalism.  Kuramata uses striking colours, designs, angles and experimentation with texture and material in his iconic Miss Blanche chair of 1988.  Rectilinearity (the shaping of forms into rectangles), another feature of Japanese minimalism, is dramatically overturned in Nendo’s Scatter Shelf, made up of a series of intricate rectangles despite an intricate, busy, non-minimalist form. 

But the greatest struggle of all in contemporary Japan is the struggle for space in an urban landscape where the high cost of housing produces a culture of space conservation.  The lack of space led to the development of intricate storage systems, and this key Japanese motif influences the form of Nendo’s Scatter Shelf.  The efficient use of a relatively high structure with many compartments in this shelf is seen also in daily items such as containers, chests, and drawers. 

Another evolution that came about with the lack of space is the clever “playing” with space by contemporary Japanese designers.  As in art and music, the lack of material – silence or emptiness – is as much a statement as the presence thereof.  Here, Kuramata’s Glass Chair is a fabulous example of this optical illusion.  Transparency allows for the trick of revealing space that is optically, but not actually, available, reacting to the notion that furniture occupies space.  His Glass Chair is one of the most significant designs of the 20^th century.  With its apparent lightness, it lures us to fantasize about the magical vanishing of the chair altogether.  The Glass Chair comprises sheets of glass bonded with no screws but an ultra violet adhesive.  Regarding Nendo’s Cabbage Chair, one sees circular waves and pleats, bearing more than a fleeting resemblance to the rounded, elegant features of the Japanese written language.  Nendo’s Scatter Shelf, constructed in modular units, creates a repetition of form that attracts us into viewing our space from a fresh angle.  From the front, it appears as a set of tightly arranged panels, but from different angles, the confined storage system defies volume with its grid-like structure.  According to Oki Sato, Nendo’s founder, the Scatter Shelf “creates a visual effect in which objects placed on shelves appear as though caught in a spider’s web.”

The contemporary Japanese designers are prominent in the international scene and have been housed in collections of major museums worldwide.  Nendo has exhibited at the V&A museum in London, with a work titled Mimicry Chair housed in the main entrance of the museum for a time.  Created with punched metal to create a transparent chair, it has a structure that resembles a soft back rest. Nendo’s Cabbage Chair was part of the MOMA collection in New York.  Shiro Kuramata is now one of a few 20^th century designers who is quoted alongside the greats such as Jean Prouvé and Eileen Gray.

Shiro Kuramata

Shiro Kuramata (born in 1934), was a versatile interior designer, furniture maker, and architect, who became one of the legendary designers of the 20^th century.  After working for several industrial and design companies, he established his own practice in 1965.  In 1977, he became famous virtually overnight for his Drawer in an Irregular Form, made with stained ash and lacquered wood. 

Together with his friend Issey Miyake, and architect Tadao Ando, Shiro Kuramata belonged to the generation of designers born just before the war, who were to change the landscape of the world design scene.  Kuramata was bold and experimental – he twisted the use of common materials, such as acrylic, chipboard, or steel mesh, creating structures made of plywood, lacquered metal, and lacquered wood.  His iconic Miss Blanche Chair of 1988 involves taking imitation plexiglass roses poured into a mould with liquid acrylic resin, using striking colours, designs, angles and experimentation with texture and material.  Also in 1988, Kuramata moved to Paris, where he set up a design firm in the Rue Royal. 

His designs are represented by distinguished firms including Cappellini and Vitra.  His works have been shown in the MoMA and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, and the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris.  Shiro Kuramata is now one of the few 20^th century designers who is known alongside the great designers such as Jean Prouvé and Eileen Gray.  In 1990 the French government awarded him the distinguished Ordre des Arts et des Lettres to recongnise his contribution to design.  He passed away in 1991.