Chair
1949 (designed), ca. 1950 (manufactured)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Although Ray Komai was principally a graphic designer this chair is probably the most well-known of all his designs. He began designing furniture for the J. G. Furniture Company in the late 1940s after carrying out advertising work for the company. His moulded plywood chair was influenced by an interest in origami and the furniture of Charles and Ray Eames. He was also greatly influenced by abstract artists including Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee as well as tribal masks from Africa and New Guinea. The owner of the J. G. Furniture Company described Komai coming up with the design for this chair in a meeting in around 1948 – Komai held up a piece of paper and folded it into the shape of the seat, with a vertical seam running down the back. This chair, along with an upholstered chair designed by Komai, were exhibited in MoMA’s Good Design Award exhibition in 1950.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Moulded 5-ply walnut-faced plywood and tubular steel frame |
| Brief description | Chair, designed by Ray Komai, manufactured by J. G. Furniture Co., moulded walnut-faced plywood and tubular steel, designed New York, 1949, manufactured Brooklyn, New York, about 1950. |
| Physical description | Chair with a single piece seat and back of moulded 5-ply walnut-faced plywood. There is a triangular shaped opening at the juncture of the seat and back that continues into a vertical slit up the back. The slit is held together with a horizontal metal bar on the back that is secured from the front with two circular metal disks. The seat is supported on two sets of two tubular steel legs welded together. Each leg ends in a flattened metal circular foot with rubber around the top. Two of the feel have felt pads, one black and the other white. The legs are attached to a block of solid wood glued to the underside of the chair. The company's labels is adhered to the block of wood. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions | (J. G. Furniture Company label adhered to solid wood block glued to underside of chair) |
| Gallery label |
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| Credit line | Given by the American Friends of the V&A through the generosity of Mark McDonald |
| Summary | Although Ray Komai was principally a graphic designer this chair is probably the most well-known of all his designs. He began designing furniture for the J. G. Furniture Company in the late 1940s after carrying out advertising work for the company. His moulded plywood chair was influenced by an interest in origami and the furniture of Charles and Ray Eames. He was also greatly influenced by abstract artists including Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee as well as tribal masks from Africa and New Guinea. The owner of the J. G. Furniture Company described Komai coming up with the design for this chair in a meeting in around 1948 – Komai held up a piece of paper and folded it into the shape of the seat, with a vertical seam running down the back. This chair, along with an upholstered chair designed by Komai, were exhibited in MoMA’s Good Design Award exhibition in 1950. |
| Bibliographic reference | Wilk, Christopher. Plywood: A Material Story. London: Thames & Hudson / V&A, 2017
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.5-2019 |
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| Record created | July 4, 2016 |
| Record URL |
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