Chair #165

BASKET CHAIR

—Designed by Isamu Noguchi and Isamu Kenmochi

Legendary American-Japanese sculptor and designer Isamu Noguchi and Japanese designer Isamu Kenmochi paired up to designed this bamboo weaved chair. The original prototype was lost soon after conception and has only recently been recreated with the help of photographs. The chair’s frame is made of a looping, bent iron rod instead of wood, which gives the chair the look of two open-weave baskets, a pin cushion for the seat and a curving horizontal tube for the back, suspended on Hardoy’s butterfly chair frame. It was a perfect balance between Western modernism and Japanese craftsmanship. The Noguchi Museum offered the chair in a limited edition of just 50 numbers back during an exhibit in 2007. Although the price tag hovered around ten thou, I imagine they sold out.