Object Details
Artist
George Nakashima, born Spokane, WA 1905-died New Hope, PA 1990
Exhibition Label
The groundbreaking furniture of George Nakashima was included in the Renwick Gallery’s first exhibition, Woodenworks, in 1972. Nakashima trained as an architect at the University of Washington and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He discovered woodworking while incarcerated at the Minidoka Detention Center in southern Idaho, where he was forcibly detained during World War II as part of the federal government’s Executive Order 9066. Following his release, in 1943, he opened a furniture studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania. His artistic philosophy was simple: to maintain the beauty and goodness of a tree. This is an example of a conoid bench, a design first introduced in 1960, featuring the natural “free edge” of a black walnut tree.
This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World, 2022
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Warren D. Brill
Date
1977
Object number
1991.121
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Decorative Arts-Furniture
Crafts
Medium
black walnut and hickory
Dimensions
31 1/8 x 84 1/2 x 35 5/8 in. (79.1 x 214.6 x 90.5 cm)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Renwick Gallery
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1991.121