Shiro Kuramata (1934–1991) was a furniture and product designer born in Tokyo, Japan. He established himself as a design icon, one of the figures who best embodied the fine line between sophistication and craftsmanship that characterizes Japanese visual culture.
Trained in architecture (a degree he never completed, as in 1950 he began working for the Japanese design firm Teikokukizai), Kuramata developed as a furniture and product designer, creating a manufacturing philosophy focused on elevating the power of materials, which considered the material as the voice and content of each piece of furniture, where there is no separation between form, material and interior, but rather they are a whole.
Shiro Kuramata (1934–1991), Mod. Vase, Double Vase, Floating Feather, rose-tinted glass Plexiglas and glass or Plexiglas test tube and feather. Photo @ Bonhams
Cabinet de Curiosité. Shiro Kuramata. Via collections.vam.ac.uk
In 1965, at the age of 31, Kuramata took the initiative to found his own studio in Tokyo, called Kuramata Design Office, a flagship from which he has continued to work on countless well-known designs produced to this day, alongside brands such as Vitra, Memphis, Cappellini, and numerous Japanese brands. He also worked closely with stylist and later perfume brand Issey Miyake, designing most of the interiors of his boutique stores.
Through design, Kuramata explored the new technologies offered by the post-war era, utilizing industrial materials such as aluminum, glass, and acrylic, which gave his designs a lightweight and unconventional character. Thanks to this decontextualization of materials, he managed to create pieces that border on a functional yet contemplative character, more typical of works of art. The famous Miss Blanche chair is a prime example, made of transparent acrylic resin from which paper tulips emerge, a piece that has become an emblem of Japanese modernist design. For him, the material embodied the qualities of transparency, translucency, reflectivity, opacity, and tactility.
Shiro Kuramata Miss Blanche chair, Designed 1988. Via artsy.net
Armchair, Sing Sing Sing. Shiro Kuramata for XO, France. 1985. Via Modernity.se
"The function of design should not be limited to its practicality alone. Charm should also consider its functionality." Shino Kuramata
The genius of his pieces, as poetic as they are often grotesque, finds balance in the relationship between form and function, influenced by artists and designers such as Mondrian and Judd, whose minimalist, surrealist, and abstract ideals Kuramata embraced. As an interior designer, Shiro Kuramata worked on more than 300 restaurants and commercial spaces. His collection with the renowned Memphis Milano brand has positioned him in the history of 20th-century design.
Arm sofa. Shiro Kuramata for Cappellini. Via Pinterest
Considered a 20th-century design visionary, Kuramata used color as part of the material's expressive medium. For Kuramata, the elements of color held much of the object's soulful vibration, and formed a balance with the transparency of video and resin, bringing color to the designs with a visual, inviting, and humorous quality. For him, a piece of furniture or product is never surrounded by silence, nor is its expansion limited by its own body. Surrounding it, there is always a vibrating atmosphere, and color and light modify its central energy.
Coffee table. Shiro Kuramata for Memphis Milano. Via visconteacasadaste.com
Bases by Shiro Kuramata. Via Instagram
In 1990, Shiro Kuramata was named a Chevalier of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture. Today, his designs are valued at up to €50,000. Many of his pieces are part of permanent collections at venues such as New York's MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum, and the Vitra Design Museum, among others.
The book, which PHAIDON has dedicated exclusively to his work, career, and writings, is valued at €780 on the secondhand market.
