February 20, 2013At this March’s TEFAF, the New York gallery Sebastian + Barquet will devote its entire booth to master woodworker George Nakashima, bringing 30 of his pieces, including this prototype Grass Seat chair from 1947. Photo courtesy of Sebastian + Barquet; Above: Mira Nakashima leans against one of the richly grained wood pieces for which both she and her father are renowned. Photo courtesy of George Nakashima Studio
Next month, for the fifth time, the New York gallery Sebastian + Barquet will be exhibiting at the European Fine Art Fair, in Maastricht, the Netherlands. But this year, it will do something quite unusual. Instead of bringing the regular mix of American and European post-World War II classics by talents such as Giò Ponti and Paul Evans, the gallery will focus on one creator, George Nakashima, presenting more than 30 examples of his work.
“Nakashima is one of the five most important artists in our gallery,” says Helena Barquet. “We have collectors around the world interested in Nakashima, and we are using this as an opportunity to show his work in a curated fashion.”
Does she worry that the selection may seem too limited? “We feel confident,” Barquet says. “We are one of only two American galleries in the TEFAF design section — the other is Jason Jacques, who sells ceramics — so we wanted to show furniture by one of the country’s preeminent modern designers.”
The gallery is bringing some unquestionably important works, including a large circa-1974 Conoid bench made for Nelson Rockefeller’s Japanese-style guesthouse in Pocantico Hills, New York. Nakashima crafted 200 pieces for the house, which was meant to blend Eastern tradition and craftsmanship with modern Western living.
“The Rockefeller commission was one of the most important jobs of Dad’s career, made during the heyday of his practice,” recalls his daughter, Mira, who has run the Nakashima studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania, since her father’s death in 1990. “He wanted to do something special for the governor of New York and something fitting for the building, which was designed by his good friend, the Japanese architect Janzo Yoshimara.”
Nakashima’s iconic 1974 Conoid bench is made from American black walnut, hickory and East Indian rosewood.
Nakashima working in his studio, 1983. Photo courtesy of George Nakashima Studio
At the time, the Conoid bench was one of the biggest Nakashima had ever made — more than eight feet long — and was also exceptionally wide. “I was the understudy on the Rockefeller project and did work on it,” Mira recalls. “It has beautiful proportions. The seat was a very fine piece of black walnut. We hand-shaved the hickory spindles so they would give and make the seat more comfortable. There is an ergonomic curve in each spindle.”
The bench is iconic for another reason, too: Its design uniquely combines vernacular American elements (the spindles on the back recall 18th-century American Windsor chairs) with a Modernist aesthetic (the free-edge seat is in line with such designs as Charlotte Perriand’s Savoy-inspired milking stools from the 1940s). “We sell only museum-quality pieces by Nakashima,” Barquet says proudly. “We are very particular.”
Mira Nakashima will be traveling to Maastricht for three days (March 14 through 16) to meet fairgoers at TEFAF, who will be able to ask her questions about the challenges of both burnishing and building upon her father’s legacy. In the following interview, we got a head start.
1. YOU HAVE NEVER BEEN TO TEFAF. NOW THAT SEBASTIAN + BARQUET IS DEVOTING ITS ENTIRE BOOTH TO NAKASHIMA AND HAS INVITED YOU TO ATTEND, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO DISCOVER?
The gallery has been very generous in inviting me. I’m excited, but I have no idea what the fair will be like.
2. ARE EUROPEANS FAMILIAR WITH NAKASHIMA’S FURNITURE?
We have built installations for private clients in Europe, and there have been articles about us in the European editions of Architectural Digest, but I don’t really know.
Mira Nakashima, who has run the studio since 1990 — and can be seen as a toddler with her father — will attend TEFAF as a guest of Sebastian + Barquet. Photos courtesy of George Nakashima Studio
3. GROWING UP, DID YOU THINK YOU WOULD WORK ALONGSIDE YOUR FATHER AS AN ADULT?
I was persuaded in subtle and not-so-subtle ways to join him. My father was an architect who went to Harvard, didn’t like it and switched to MIT. I went to Harvard and loved it. He encouraged me to study architecture, so I did. I would rather have studied music. I was in a dance group and a choral group. After college, my godmother took me on a tour of Zen monasteries in Japan. I went to live there with an aunt to master Japanese, flower arranging and the tea ceremony. Then I went to Waseda University, learning architecture by the atelier system, where you actually build things. I married a fellow student and we began having children. After we moved to Pittsburgh and had more babies, my father asked me if I wanted to come “home,” promising to build us a house near him. My husband liked the idea, so we went. I began to do part-time work for my father. It was just a job. Then my husband and I parted, so I went to work with Dad — for 20 years — until he died in 1990. It was never planned.
Made of madrone burl, East Indian rosewood and holly, the Kent Hall Floor Lamp was one of Nakashima’s final pieces, completed just before his death in 1990.
4. WHILE THE NAKASHIMA STUDIO CONTINUES TO PRODUCE CLASSIC DESIGNS, YOU HAVE ALSO BEEN DESIGNING YOUR OWN FURNITURE, CALLED THE “KEISHO COLLECTION,” SINCE 1993. HOW IS YOUR WORK DIFFERENT FROM YOUR FATHER’S?
Keisho means “continuation” in Japanese. I am just as interested in traditional lines, classic proportions and fine wood specimens, but I work out my designs differently. The boards tell you what they want to reveal.
5. NOW THAT YOUR FATHER’S INDIVIDUAL PIECES SELL FOR TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS, ARE THEY TOO VALUABLE TO USE?
The furniture is strong; Dad always encouraged people to use it. And they can always bring things back for rehabilitation, refinishing and repair. We don’t use wax; we use pure Tung oil. My son is doing just that now, restoring old pieces — but in his own workshop.
