Greenrock Bench
George Nakashima American
Born to Japanese parents in Spokane, Washington, George Nakashima went on to train and work as an architect in Paris, Tokyo, and Pondicherry, India. During World War II, he, his wife, and their infant daughter were sent to an internment camp for Japanese Americans, the Minidoka War Relocation Center, where Nakashima learned the craft of woodworking from an elderly Japanese carpenter. Turning his attention to furniture design, Nakashima fused elements of Japanese folk tradition and Shaker design with the linear elegance of modernism. He believed that each piece of wood had a distinctive character and soul, and he sought to give trees a “second life.” All the furniture in the Arts of Japan galleries was crafted by Nakashima from walnut polished with lustrous oil finishes.
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