How High The Moon Armchair

Few designers have blended Minimalism and Surrealism into artistic furniture as successfully as Shiro Kuramata. His experimentation with form, function, color and motif informed cabinets, chairs and side tables that are as mystifying as they are visually striking. 

Born in Tokyo in 1934, Kuruamata studied at the Kuwasawa Design School. In the 1970s and ’80s, he explored industrial materials in his designs. Inspired by Italian architect and designer Ettore Sottsass, Kuramata produced irreverent and bold work. In 1981, Kuramata joined Sottsass in his founding of the Memphis Group, named for a Bob Dylan song. The Milan-based collective aimed to turn the status quo on its head and redefine what was considered appealing in modern furniture style.

His experience with the Memphis Group led Kuramata to embrace unconventional optical effects. No piece embodies this more skillfully than the Miss Blanche chair. Crafted with transparent resin and flecked with rose-petal flecks, it gives the illusion that the sitter is floating.

The How High the Moon armchair is a prime example of his playful nature and willingness to challenge the expectations for furniture design. Including shards of colored glass in concrete surfaces, his “star piece” material was prevalent throughout his work, giving the tops of his end tables and coffee tables a brazen, gem-encrusted appearance. His daring approach to design can also be seen in pieces like his sheer glass bookcases with their seemingly fragile shelves.

Kuramata created many visual delights before his death in 1991. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. His pieces remain highly prized by collectors and design enthusiasts worldwide.

On 1stDibs, explore a selection of vintage Shiro Kuramata seating, storage pieces, decorative objects and more.

Armchairs have run the gamut from prestige to ease and everything in between, and everyone has an antique or vintage armchair that they love.

Long before industrial mass production democratized seating, armchairs conveyed status and power.

In ancient Egypt, the commoners took stools, while in early Greece, ceremonial chairs of carved marble were designated for nobility. But the high-backed early thrones of yore, elevated and ornate, were merely grandiose iterations of today’s armchairs.

Modern-day armchairs, built with functionality and comfort in mind, are now central to tasks throughout your home. Formal dining armchairs support your guests at a table for a cheery feast, a good drafting chair with a deep seat is parked in front of an easel where you create art and, elsewhere, an ergonomic wonder of sorts positions you at the desk for your 9 to 5.

When placed under just the right lamp where you can lounge comfortably, both elbows resting on the padded supports on each side of you, an upholstered armchair — or a rattan armchair for your light-suffused sunroom — can be the sanctuary where you’ll read for hours.

If you’re in the mood for company, your velvet chesterfield armchair is a place to relax and be part of the conversation that swirls around you. Maybe the dialogue is about the beloved Papa Bear chair, a mid-century modern masterpiece from Danish carpenter and furniture maker Hans Wegner, and the wingback’s strong association with the concept of cozying up by the fireplace, which we can trace back to its origins in 1600s-era England, when the seat’s distinctive arm protrusions protected the sitter from the heat of the period’s large fireplaces.

If the fireside armchair chat involves spirited comparisons, your companions will likely probe the merits of antique and vintage armchairs such as Queen Anne armchairs, Victorian armchairs or even Louis XVI armchairs, as well as the pros and cons of restoration versus conservation.

Everyone seems to have a favorite armchair and most people will be all too willing to talk about their beloved design. Whether that’s the unique Favela chair by Brazilian sibling furniture designers Fernando and Humberto Campana, who repurposed everyday objects to provocative effect; or Marcel Breuer’s futuristic tubular metal Wassily lounge chair; the functionality-first LC series from Charlotte Perriand, Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret; or the Eames lounge chair of the mid-1950s created by Charles and Ray Eames, there is an iconic armchair for everyone and every purpose. Find yours on 1stDibs right now.