Beschreibung:

George Nakashima ‘Minguren II’ dining table and ten ‘Conoid’ side chairs 1990 Table: walnut, five rosewood keys; chairs: walnut, hickory. Table: 73 x 224 x 109 cm. (28 3/4 x 88 1/4 x 43 in); each chair: 90 cm. (35 1/2 in) high. Underside of table top signed in marker ‘Fawcett/George Nakashima/May 2 1990’, underside of each chair signed in marker ‘Fawcett/(1 piece seat)/George Nakashima/May 2 1990’,Together with original receipt and sketch.
Provenance Randall and Harriet Fawcett, Los Banos, California, USA Catalogue Essay The furniture commissioned for the residence of Randall and Harriet Fawcett in May of 1990 was one of the last projects designed and completed by George Nakashima before his death one month later. It is fitting, then, that the project consisted of two of Nakashima’s most revered designs: the Minguren II dining table and the Conoid chair. The term ‘Minguren’, which translates to mean ‘people’s tool association’ was the name of a movement George Nakashima became involved in during his time in Japan, in which craftsmen strove to keep alive ancient Japanese craft traditions by adapting them to modern usage and designs. Adopting this name for a series of table designs, four variations of the Minguren table were produced, each with similar tops and slightly varied bases. The second of the four designs, the Minguren II differs from the other versions by adopting two plank-shaped legs connected by a slender extended cross-stretcher at the floor. The design is minimal, well-crafted and durable, reminiscent of ‘Minguren’ principles. George Nakashima first introduced the Conoid chair design in 1960, one which would prove distinctive from his earlier and more delicate chair concepts. Based loosely on the traditional Windsor chair, the Conoid maintains the vernacular element of the spindle back, but adapts the progressive modern element of the cantilevered seat. Setting him apart from his predecessors who achieved this technique through the use of modern materials like moulded plywood and laminates, Nakashima executed the design in all natural solid wood planks. Rethinking the necessity of four legs on a chair, Nakashima’s inaugural use of two sled legs in this design further contributes to the heavier and more architectonic presence, resulting in the Conoid chair being hailed as Nakashima’s most individualistic design. Read More Artist Bio George Nakashima American • 1905 - 1990 Working out of his compound in rural New Hope, Pennsylvania, George Nakashima produced some of the most original and influential furniture designs of the post-war era. Nakashima aimed to give trees a second life, choosing solid wood over veneers and designing his furniture to highlight the inherent beauty of the wood, such as the form and grain. To this end, his tables often feature freeform edges, natural fissures and knot holes. Nakashima was an MIT-trained architect and traveled widely in his youth, gaining exposure to modernist design the world over. The signature style he developed was the distillation of extraordinary, diverse experiences, which led to the establishment of his furniture-making business in 1946. In particular, his practice of Integral Yoga, which he studied while working under the architect Antonin Raymond on the construction of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India, had a lasting impact on his philosophy as a designer. After returning to the U.S. in 1940, Nakashima's family was interned in an American concentration camp, a horrible ordeal that nevertheless introduced him to traditional Japanese joinery by way of a Nisei woodworker he met in the camp. He incorporated these techniques and also drew on American vernacular forms, such as the Windsor chair. These diverse influences have resulted in immense crossover appeal in the world of twentieth-century design collecting. View More Works