PIASA’s American Design sales are the opportunity to present George Nakashima’s many exceptional creations, such as a walnut cabinet, the ‘Lounge with free form arm’ chair, or two sideboards in walnut and elm, exhibiting an almost architectural power and simplicity.
Lot 130 - George Nakashima (1905-1990)
Cabinet
Result : 13 000 €
Born in 1905 in Spokane (Washington) to a family of Japanese immigrants, George Nakashima is a staple of American design, having marked the XXth century. After growing up in the wooded environment of the Olympic Peninsula, he is trained in architecture and sylviculture. Wood work is central to his practice very early on, and his research will constantly evolve around this medium.
His many travels feed his sensibility. After a stay in France, Nakashima found work in Tokyo and in Pondicherry. He designed a dormitory for the followers of the Shri Aurobindo ashram in 1936, thus completing his architectural work begun in Japan in 1934 with the construction of the catholic church of Karuizawa. George Nakashima had to return to the US in 1939, at the beginning of the war. During World War Two, he turned to design and furniture, relinquishing architecture.
Lot 39 - George Nakashima (1905-1990)
Pedestal-single Desk et Grass-seated chair
Result : 15 600 €
His participation to the Shikoku Minguren group in Japan beginng in 1964 then drew him to collaborate with Sakura Seisakusho, which will become the only company authorized to create Nakashima designs, and his work gains world recognition, and is awarded prizes in Japan and the US. The Full Circle retrospective at the Craft Museum of New York in 1989 also demonstrates his success.
He is fascinated by nature, and his work reflects this fascination. “Being intimate with nature in its changing moods is one of the greatest experiences in life“, he says. The wood he uses seems ideal to evoke this philosophy. His book The Soul Of a Tree is published in 1983.
