Noguchi designed the first version of this table, with a glass top resting on interconnected rosewood supports, for the private residence of MoMA president A. Conger Goodyear during the 1930s.
In a modified design from 1944, which reflected his preoccupation with sculptural, biomorphic structures, Noguchi transformed the original idea into a base consisting of two identical wooden elements, one of which is reversed and pinned to the other at a right angle. The Coffee Table has been produced for the US market by Herman Miller since 1947; the Vitra Design Museum began production for the European market in 2002. It is regarded today as one of Noguchi’s best-known designs.
Noguchi himself described Coffee Table as his best furniture design, no doubt because it is extremely reminiscent of his bronze and marble sculptures of the time, translating the latter's biomorphic formal language unadulterated into a piece of sculptural furniture: glass tabletop resting on two identical wooden elements placed at right angles. Collection Vitra Design Museum, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation.
Materials:
varnished solid wood base, 19 mm glass top with rounded edges.
Design:
Isamu Noguchi, 1944
Manufacturer:
Vitra
In a modified design from 1944, which reflected his preoccupation with sculptural, biomorphic structures, Noguchi transformed the original idea into a base consisting of two identical wooden elements, one of which is reversed and pinned to the other at a right angle. The Coffee Table has been produced for the US market by Herman Miller since 1947; the Vitra Design Museum began production for the European market in 2002. It is regarded today as one of Noguchi’s best-known designs.
Noguchi himself described Coffee Table as his best furniture design, no doubt because it is extremely reminiscent of his bronze and marble sculptures of the time, translating the latter's biomorphic formal language unadulterated into a piece of sculptural furniture: glass tabletop resting on two identical wooden elements placed at right angles. Collection Vitra Design Museum, © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation.
Materials:
varnished solid wood base, 19 mm glass top with rounded edges.
Design:
Isamu Noguchi, 1944
Manufacturer:
Vitra
