On Thursday June 9, 2022, during its American Design auction, PIASA will present 34 pieces by American designer George Nakashima.
The aesthetics of the wooden furniture that the American designer George Nakashima has fashioned all his life has propelled him high into the pantheon of interior design history. The artist's fascination with the expressive potential of wood left in places as a tree trunk must be related to the region in which he was born in 1905.
George Nakashima (1905-1990)
Free edge - Unique piece
Estimate: 20 000 / 30 000 €
George Nakashima was born in the city of Spokane, Washington, from a Japanese family. For this town, which lived mainly from mining and logging, the early years of the 20th century were a period of economic decline. As far as the eye could see, the area surrounding the town was covered with a thick layer of trees. He left this natural environment to study architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After graduating, the 26-year-old left the United States and traveled.
George Nakashima (1905-1990)
Wall sculpture - Unique piece
Estimate: 20 000 / 30 000 €
He travelled in France as a bohemian artist for several months. Via North Africa, George Nakashima then continued his journey to Japan. He discovered the design and architecture of the Japanese archipelago with Antonin Raymond, trained by Cass Gilbert and Frank Lloyd Wright.
He makes his first furniture for an ashram in Pondicherry, India, which the authorities entrusted him with the construction.
In 1940, he returns to Seattle where he teaches woodworking.
George Nakashima (1905-1990)
Kent Hall - Special order
Estimate: 30 000 / 40 000 €
George Nakashima's style is unique, a style in which the material is the foundation of every creation. Every design is based on wood and raw wood only. Unlike industrial design, which starts from the design and search for the most suitable material, George Nakashima reverses the logic by working from the material, so that each plank of wood will guide – according to its shape – the designed object .
George Nakashima (1905-1990)
Slab - Special order
Estimate : 25 000 / 35 000 €
Nakashima's work highlights the natural beauty and simplicity of the wood, with rough edges, close to a philosophy that cultivates an aesthetics of the unfinished. While developing refined and precise assembly techniques, he likes to combine traditional American and Japanese styles with modern style.
George Nakashima (1905-1990)
Seagrass - Set of six chairs
Estimate : 25 000 / 35 000 €