The furniture created by Shiro Kuramata (1934–1991), one of Japan’s most influential furniture designers of the late 20th century, frequently blended minimalism with a lighthearted, playful touch. His 1988 Miss Blanche chair, for instance, which is in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, features a clear acrylic seat and arms with embedded paper roses.
“What makes his work stand out, and allows it to become more than great industrial design, is that there’s a poetry and artistic quality to it,” says Brent Lewis, director of Wright auction house’s New York gallery. “You have very clean forms, but there’s always some kind of twist.”
From January 6 through 29, Wright’s New York gallery will exhibit pieces that Kuramata, who died in 1991, designed as custom commissions and limited editions, along with artist Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Seascapes” photographs. The exhibition, “Shiro Kuramata & Hiroshi Sugimoto: Works from the Absent Past,” will include Kuramata creations such as a 1987 dining table with a top of shattered glass sandwiched between two sheets of whole glass, a 1989 Cabinet de Curiosité that suspends its contents from a framework of colored acrylic, and early-’80s chairs with tubular metal frames named Sofa with Arms. The exhibition concludes with an auction in Chicago on January 29.
From January 6 through 29, 2015, at Wright, 980 Madison Avenue, New York; wright20.com[
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