Moderne Gallery

“The New Chair was prominently featured in Nakashima’s 1955 catalogue, where it was introduced as a major addition to his gradually expanding line. Although very much in the manner of earlier designs indebted to the Windsor chair, the New Chair differed in several respects.
 
While its turned H-shaped stretcher is the most elaborate of Nakashima’s seating support systems, the overall design of the chair is among his most serene. Lacking the exuberant curvature used for the crest rail of the Armchair and Straight-Backed Chair, or the dramatic cantilever of the Conoid Chair, the New Chair became one of the firm’s most popular in the 1950s and afterward.
 
Nakashima’s respect for the inherent qualities of craftsman-made designs is evident in the New Chair. Hickory, the standard material used by Windsor chair makers of the eighteenth century, was suitable only for the spindles. They would never have used it for the shaped seats, which required a common wood, such as chestnut or sash, that would lend itself to carving. Nakashima followed the lead of these earlier woodworkers in his selection of walnut for the seat of the New Chair” (‘George Nakashima Full Circle’, Derek E. Ostergard, 1989, p.154).
 
New Chairs | Set of 8, 1980-81
American Black Walnut, Hickory
18 1/2 x 22 x 35 1/2 in (Seat Height - 17 in)
 
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A 1980-81 Conoid Dining Table by George Nakashima. The table features free edges along its length, four Rosewood butterflies joining the two top American Black Walnut slabs, and the iconic Conoid Table base.
 
 “The Conoid Dining Table reflects the same angle as the Chairs, with two heavy angled uprights lightened by a narrow waist, joined by a single rectangular stretcher on the floor and supported laterally by two sets of feet similar to the Conoid Chairs. Because of its sculptural simplicity, it effectively sets off the large, heavy, single-board plank table-tops that become available during this time and thereafter” (‘Nature, Form, and Spirit’, Mira Nakashima, 2003, p. 174).
 
7ft Conoid Dining Table, 1980-81
American Black Walnut
84 x 42 3/4 x 28 1/2 in
 
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American studio craft master Judy Kensley McKie’s Wagging Dog Chair is an exceptional examples of the artist’s signature zoomorphic furniture design. Carved from mahogany, the work’s form blurs the line between furniture and sculpture demonstrating a playful interpretation of a dog’s form including intricate, carved textural detailing and an extended palm-like tail, serving as the chair’s backrest and titular feature.
 
“I remember I would sit in the living room and look at our own furniture, which was all very straightforward. Look at it for a long time, the way you might look at clouds in the sky. As I looked I saw the armrests starting to turn into animals, or I would see that a table had a stance that was like a four-legged creature, and I would think, that would be one way of bringing this stuff to life. I started looking carefully at a lot of animal forms, looking at a lot of primitive but incorporated animal imagery. The honesty of it and aliveness in primitive forms always appealed to me, so I wanted to get something of that into my work” (‘Furniture with Soul: Master Woodworkers and Their Craft’, David Savage, 2011, p. 93).
 
Wagging Dog Chair, 2006
Carved signature/date/edition: “© JKM ‘06 1/2”
Mahogany
17 3/4 x 24 x 36 1/2 in | Seat Height 18 1/4 in
Edition 1 of 2
 
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