Shirō Kuramata

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Shirō Kuramata ( Japanese 倉 俣 史 朗 , Kuramata Shirō ; born November 29, 1934 in Tokyo Prefecture , Japan ; † February 1, 1991 ibid) was a Japanese product designer and interior designer . He designed numerous pieces of furniture that are shown as design classics in numerous museums of applied art . He designed the interior furnishings for over 300 bars, restaurants and business premises. Shirō Kuramata is considered one of the most influential Japanese industrial designers of the 20th century.

life and work

After graduating from school, Shirō Kuramata began studying architecture at the Tokyo Polytechnic . After completing his studies in 1953, he initially completed an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker at the Japanese furniture manufacturer Teikokukizai. In 1954 he began a two-year study of interior design at the Kuwasawa Institute of Design . From 1957 to 1963 he worked at the Matsuya department store in Tokyo , where he designed shop fittings and window displays. In 1965 he founded the Kuramata design office in Tokyo. At the same time he began to design interior fittings for bars and restaurants. In his minimalist furniture designs of this time, he combined western and eastern traditions.

Kuramata achieved international recognition in 1970 with his designs for the exhibition Furniture in Irregular Shapes . Some of the furniture - including the S-shaped curved chests of drawers Side 1 and Side 2 - were produced in small series in the 1980s by the Italian furniture company Cappellini, which specializes in re-editions of classic furniture .

How high the moon, 1986
Miss Blanche, 1988

From 1976 Kuramata took over the planning and furnishing of Issey Miyake's fashion boutiques in Paris , New York and Tokyo. Artistically influenced by Ettore Sottsass , Shiro Kuramata worked for the Italian design group Memphis . During the 1970s and 1980s Kuramata began using new materials such as acrylic , glass , aluminum and steel mesh for his designs in order to create furniture that is characterized by transparency and lightness. His most important works include the Miss Blanche acrylic armchair and the How high the Moon chair made of steel mesh . Kuramata subsequently worked for influential and successful furniture companies and design groups such as Ishimaru , Aoshima Shoten , Cappellini, Fijiko , Kurosaki , Mhoya Glass Shop , Vitra and Pastoe .

In 1988 Kuramata moved his design office to Rue Royale in Paris and bought the Hotel Martel , which the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens had designed for the sculptors Jan and Joël Martel in 1926 . In 1989 he took over the design of a bar in the Hotel Il Palazzo in Fukuoka . Shiro Kuramata died unexpectedly in Tokyo at the age of 56.

Kuramata's pieces of furniture are in demand today in museums and at international auctions . In 2015, Sotheby’s auctioned a Miss Blanche armchair for £ 269,000.

His furniture is u. a. as exhibits in the Center National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou , Corning Museum of Glass , Dallas Museum of Art , High Museum of Art , Israel Museum , Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin , Metropolitan Museum of Art , Musée des Arts Décoratifs , Museum of Modern Art , National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto , Victoria and Albert Museum, and Vitra Design Museum .

Works (selection)

Sing Sing Sing, 1985
  • The Luminous table (1969)
  • Drawers - Dresser (1970)
  • Glass Shelves # 1 - Glass Shelf (1976)
  • Glass Chair (1976)
  • Kyoto table (1983) for the Memphis design group
  • Apple Honey chair (1985) for Pastoe
  • Sing Sing Sing chair (1985) for Pastoe
  • Side table Ko Ko (1986) for Cappellini
  • Solaris console (1986) for Cappellini
  • Armchair 401 (1986) for Pastoe
  • Umbrella stand A101 for Pastoe
  • Sally table (1987) for the Memphis design group
  • Miss Blanche - acrylic chair with various Japanese artificial flowers (1988)
  • How High The Moon - seating (1986-88)
  • Cabinet Hommage to Mondrian for Cappellini

Exhibitions (selection)

  • Shiro Kuramata: Revolutionary Japanese Designer . Design Museum Gent, Belgium (2013-2014)
  • Shiro Kuramata . Design Museum Gent, Gent, Belgium (2012–2013)
  • The Essence of Things . (Traveling exhibition) Grassi Museum , Leipzig; Design Museum, Gent, Belgium; Museum August Kestner , Hanover; Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein (2010–2012)
  • Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 . Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2011)
  • Shiro Kuramata and Ettore Sottsass , Design Sight, Tokyo, Japan (2011)
  • Shiro Kuramata 1934-1991 . (Traveling exhibition): Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Paris; Austrian Museum for Applied Arts , Vienna; National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Gray Art Gallery, New York; Musée des Arts Decoratifs, Montreal; Centro Cultural, Mexico City; Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (1996–1999)
  • Designed for Delight . Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull; Montreal Museum of Decorative Arts, Montreal; Canada; Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris; Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie , Kraków; Die Neue Sammlung , Munich; JB Speed ​​Art Museum, Louisville; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts , Richmond (1997)
  • Collection: Chairs of the 20th Century. Museum of Modern Art, Toyama (1994)
  • Japanese Design — A Survey Since 1950 . Philadelphia Museum of Art , Philadelphia (1994)
  • Memphis & Transavanguardia , Touko Museum of Contemporary Art, Aoyama, Tokyo; Fukuyama Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan Uny Group. Bi! Kujira, Yatai at World Design Exposition '89, Nagoya (1989)
  • Europalia 1989 Japan, Brussels (1989)
  • The 1987 Vitra International Exhibition , Musée Rath , Geneva (1987)
  • Milano Furniture Salon Exhibition , Zeus Hall, Milan (1987)
  • Memphis Vol. 8 , Milan (1987)
  • Shiro Kuramata Exhibition , Gallery Gallery, Kyoto (1987)
  • 1910-1970 Japon des Avant-Gardes , Center Georges Pompidou, Paris (1986)
  • Cappellini Presents the Furniture by Shiro Kuramata , Museum of Milan (1986)
  • Japanese Designers — Tradition and the Present, Central Hall of the Soviet Artists Alliance, Moscow (1984)
  • The 11th - São Paulo International Biennale . São Paulo

Awards (selection)

literature

  • Shiro Kuramata . In: Thomas Heider; Markus Stegmann; René Zey: Lexicon of International Design - Designer. Products. Companies. Reinbek 1996, ISBN 3-499-16346-2 , 175f.
  • Shiro Kuramata. 1943-1991 . Exhibition catalog by Andrea Branzi and Ettore Sottsass. Tokyo: Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, 1996

Web links

Commons : Shiro Kuramata  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Design classic: How High the Moon armchair by Shiro Kuramata. In: www.ft.com. Retrieved November 14, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b Thomas Heider; Markus Stegmann; René Zey: Lexicon of International Design - Designer. Products. Companies. rororo, Reinbek 1996, ISBN 3-499-16346-2 , p. 1775 f .
  3. ↑ Author collective: Modern furniture - 150 years of design . hf ullmann, Potsdam 2013, ISBN 978-3-8480-0030-2 , p. 372 .
  4. ↑ Author collective: Modern furniture - 150 years of design . hf ullmann, Potsdam 2013, ISBN 978-3-8480-0030-2 , p. 252 .
  5. ↑ Shiro Kuramata biography. In: www.shiro-kuramata.de. Retrieved November 16, 2016 .
  6. ↑ Connox, 2005-2016: Shiro Kuramata. In: www.connox.de. Retrieved November 16, 2016 .
  7. ↑ Miss Blanche armchair breaks world record at auction. In: Dezeen. November 5, 2015, accessed November 14, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Friedman Benda: Shiro Kuramata. Retrieved November 16, 2016 .
  9. ↑ Author collective: Modern furniture - 150 years of design . hfullmann, Potsdam 2013, ISBN 978-3-8480-0030-2 , p. 334 .
personal data
SURNAME Kuramata, Shirō
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 倉 俣 史 朗 (Japanese); Kuramata, Shirō
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese industrial designer
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Tokyo prefecture
DATE OF DEATH February 1, 1991
Place of death Tokyo prefecture