Artwork Details
- Title
- Conoid Chair
- Artist
- Date
- 1971
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 35 3⁄8 x 20 5⁄8 x 18 3⁄4 in. (89.8 x 52.5 x 47.6 cm)
- Markings
- seat underside near front edge in black ink: George Nakashima/Oct 1971 seat underside near back edge in black ink: SMITHSONIAN/INSTITUTE/RENWICK GALLERY (underlined)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Lloyd E. Herman, founding director and director emeritus of the Renwick Gallery (1971−1986)
- Mediums Description
- black walnut and hickory
- Classifications
- Object Number
- 1991.125
Artwork Description
There is drama in the opening of a log--to uncover for the first time the beauty in the bole, or trunk, of a tree hidden for centuries, waiting to be given this second life. -- George Nakashima
Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery, 2019
Conoid Chair was built from a slab of walnut cantilevered over two legs that George Nakashima designed to make the chair movable on carpeting. The chair was named after Nakashima's studio in New Hope, Pennsylvania, which was modeled on the section of a cone. The thin hickory spindles rising up to support a gently arced cross-member evoke the elegant window walls of the studio, and recall the colonial tradition of simple, functional spindle-back chairs.
"It is an art and a soul-satisfying adventure to walk the forests of the world, to commune with trees, to take them when mature or even dead and . . . to bring this living material to the work bench, ultimately to give it a second life." George Nakashima, Woodworker, 1984
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