Conoid Chair

Media - 1991.125 - SAAM-1991.125_1 - 62754
Copied George Nakashima, Conoid Chair, 1971, black walnut and hickory, 35 3820 5818 34 in. (89.852.547.6 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Lloyd E. Herman, founding director and director emeritus of the Renwick Gallery (19711986), 1991.125

Artwork Details

Title
Conoid Chair
Date
1971
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
35 3820 5818 34 in. (89.852.547.6 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 (19711986)
Mediums
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

Luce Center Label

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.

Luce Object Quote

"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

Audio

Exhibitions

Media - 2016.11 - SAAM-2016.11_6 - 124929
Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery
November 13, 2015March 6, 2022
Connections is the Renwick Gallery’s dynamic ongoing permanent collection presentation, featuring more than 80 objects celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world.