Courtesy of the Nakashima Foundation for Peace.
Contrary to common belief, the prolific and articulate George Nakashima was not the first American studio furniture maker; Wharton Esherick and Sam Maloof preceded him. Trained as an architect, he only acquired his cabinetmaking skills during the Second World War while interned in a forced relocation camp, working alongside the Japanese-trained Gentaro “Kenneth” Hikogawa. Nakashima was a singular figure, cosmopolitan and designerly in his approach. Yet for many Americans, he came to exemplify the rustic ideal of craft. This strange turn of events is primarily due to his 1981 book Soul of a Tree, in which he defined his approach in quasi-spiritual terms: “It is a stirring moment when out of an inert mass drawn from nature we set out to produce an object never before seen, an object to enhance man’s world; above all, a tree will live again.”¹
This vaguely Eastern-sounding animism, symbolized in his work by the frequent use of a natural edge, was a great success with Nakashima’s patrons in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Yet what makes his work endure is the balance between organicism and structural rigor, evidence of his modernist roots.
¹ George Nakashima, The Soul of a Tree (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1981), 125.
Conoid Bench in American black walnut slab with hickory spindles and one East Indian rosewood butterfly key. Designed and made by George Nakashima, USA, 1966.
85" L x 30" W x 35" H
215.9cm L x 76.2cm W x 88.9cm H
CO762
Courtesy of Moderne Gallery