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Shiro Kuramata

The Japanese designer Shiro Kuramata (b. 1934, Tokyo – d. 1991, Tokyo) is best known for his membership of Memphis, a group of postmodern designers founded by Ettore Sottsass. He created the vase Ephemera in 1989 especially for a solo exhibition in the Galerie Yves Gastou in Paris. Made of acrylic resin, glass and aluminium, these vases are a homage to the Japanese tradition of floral arrangement, which is here reduced to a single flower. The elegant lines of their form, whose minimalism derives from the purified simplicity of Japanese culture, seem almost to evoke a human figure seemingly absorbed in meditation.

Artworks

  1. Shiro Kuramata Ephemera, 1989

    Technique mixte
    140 x 43 x 18 cm chacun
    Collection Mudam Luxembourg
    Donation 2008 - Mieko Kuramata
    © Photo : Rémi Villaggi | Mudam Luxembourg

  1. Shiro Kuramata Laputa, 1991

    Lit, draps et coussins
    420 x 144 x 68,8 cm
    Collection Mudam Luxembourg
    Acquisition 2008
    © Photo : Mitsumasa Fujitsuka

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