Sori Yanagi / Tendo Co. Ltd. / Japanese Crafts “Butterfly” Stool c.1956
Sori Yanagi (1915-2012), Japan
Tendo Co. Ltd., Japan
Butterfly stool, 1956.
Bleached rosewood veneer on plywood with brass.
H: 15” x W: 16 ½” x D: 12”
Price: $4,900
This model can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
The Japanese designer Sori Yanagi is best known for his 1956 Butterfly Stool. It is both elegant and utterly simple: two curved pieces of molded plywood are held together through compression and tension by a single brass rod. The stool’s graceful shape recalls a butterfly’s wings, and has also been compared to the form of torii, the traditional Shinto shrine gates. He loved traditional Japanese crafts and was dedicated to the modernist principles of simplicity, practicality and tactility that are associated with Alvar Aalto, Charles and Ray Eames, and Le Corbusier.”
Yanagi, who studied architecture and art at Tokyo’s Academy of Fine Art, was inspired by the work of Le Corbusier and by the designer Charlotte Perriand, with whom he worked in the early 1940s, while she was in Tokyo as the arts and crafts adviser to the Japanese Board of Trade. But perhaps the most indelible influence on Yanagi was that of his father, Soetsu Yanagi, who led the “mingei” movement, which celebrated Japanese folk craft and the beauty of everyday objects, and who founded the Nihon Mingeikan (or Japanese Folk Crafts Museum) in Tokyo. Yanagi fils, who was named director of the museum in 1977, succinctly described his design aesthetic in a 2002 interview in The Japan Times: “I try to create things that we human beings feel are useful in our daily lives. During the process, beauty is born naturally.” Throughout his life, Sori Yanagi was inspired by what he called “anonymous design” — he cited the Jeep and a baseball glove as two examples — and he in turn inspired younger designers, like Naoto Fukasawa, Tom Dixon and Jasper Morrison.
Related Products
-
Sydney Pitcher “St. Martin’s Cross Iona” Arts & Crafts photograph c. 1900
SYDNEY PITCHER F.R.P.S. (d. 1950) England
ARTHUR H. PITCHER (Framer)“St. Martin’s Cross Iona” c.1900
Carbon process photograph, hand carved oak frame with beautiful wood grain detail.
Marks: S MARTINS CROSS IONA (carved incised mark)
Art Nouveau paper label (on back): Framed by Arthur H. Pitcher, College Court, Gloucester, Moulding No…..Photograph: H: 9 1/2″ x W: 5″
Frame: H: 16 3/4″ x W: 8 5/8″ D: 5/8″Sydney A. Pitcher FRPS (active 1904-1939) was a photographer with an interest in monument and church architecture. He is listed in the 1927 Kelly’s Directory of the County of Gloucester as a commercial photographer, publisher and picture frame maker, operating from 5 & 7 College Court, Gloucester. Pitcher was involved primarily in the photography of Gloucestershire churches, but also took pictures of churches and cathedrals in neighbouring counties, and of medieval sculptures at Winchester College. He collaborated on the publication of Rushforth’s series of volumes The stained glass of Great Malvern Priory Church , Gloucester, 1916-1927.
He joined the Royal Photographic Society in 1904, was admitted as an Associate member in 1925, and became a Fellow in 1928.
-
Wilhelm Kage / Gustavsberg “Nude” Farsta Studio Bowl c. 1940
WILHELM KÅGE (1889-1960) Sweden
GUSTAVSBERG Gustavsberg, Sweden
“Nude” Farsta bowl c. 1940
Glazed stoneware with hand inscribed sgraffito decoration of a nude
Marks: Kage, Studio Gustavsberg; FARSTA
Dia: 8″
Originally a painter, Wilhelm Kåge was employed by Gustavsberg as an art director to rejuvenate the pottery´s production. He was faithful to the company for 32 years. In 1942 he started the legendary Gustavsberg Studio with the mission to create unique artistic pieces. His lively imagination brought forth a great variety of forms. Kåge was an artist of contradictions. In the 1940´s and 50´s he designed several geometrical, almost cubist, vessels in the “Surrea” series which stands in striking contrast to his soft formed, organic shaped tableware from the same period. Kåge designed more than 30 different dinner services, of particular importance was the inexpensive “workers” service, intended for a wider audience. Kåge´s pride, however, was the Farsta series of unique vessels made of heavy stoneware with carved surfaces and earth coloured decorative glazes. The clay for which was taken from the Farsta bay area very near the Gustavsberg pottery. He began experimenting with the Farsta line of studio ceramics already in the 1920´s. Art historians and collectors today consider the Farsta pieces the culmination of Wilhelm Kåge´s artistic production.