George Nakashima was born in Spokane, Washington in 1905. He received a Bachelor of Architecture at the University of Washington in 1929 and a Master of Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1931, as well as the Prix Fontainebleau from L’Ecole Americaine des Beaux Arts in France in 1928. He moved back to Paris briefly in 1934, after which he moved to Tokyo to work for architect Antonin Raymond, where he was exposed to the Japanese folk art tradition. His work for Raymond sent him to Pondicherry, India, where he discovered his second career as a furniture maker. While there, he designed and supervised the construction of Golconde, a dormitory for Sri Aurobindo Ashram.




In 1940, Nakashima returned to the United States to start a family with his new wife, Marion Okajima, and the couple soon had their first child, Mira. They had settled in Seattle, Washington, and like many of Japanese ancestry living on the west coast, the Nakashimas were sent to an internment camp in Idaho during WWII. While Nakashima was there he made furniture from whatever pieces of wood he could find and learned techniques of Japanese woodworking from others stationed at the camp, including a skilled woodworker named Gentaro Hikogawa. After nearly a year at the camp, in 1943, Antonin Raymond successfully petitioned for the family’s release, which prompted their relocation to New Hope, Pennsylvania. Living on the Raymond farm, it wasn’t before long until Nakashima began making furniture once again and, in 1945, opened his furniture and woodworking studio.




On Nakashima’s property, he designed the family’s quarters, the woodshop, and many out buildings, including an arboretum. There he created a body of work that incorporated Japanese design and shop practices, as well as Modernism—work that made his name synonymous with the best of 20th century Studio Craftsman furniture.




Nakashima believed that the tree and its wood dictated the piece it was to become. He elevated what others would see as imperfections: choosing boards with knots and burls and cracks, which he would enhance and stabilize with butterfly joints. He designed furnishings for sitting, dining, sleeping, and working. While all his work is prized, his Frenchman’s Cove and Conoid tables are most so, particularly when executed in exotic woods and with free edges. Many of his designs are known by their distinctive bases: Conoid, Miguren, Trestle, and Pyramid among them. He is also known for his Mira chairs and stools, named for his daughter, who now leads his shop and continues his design legacy.




While Nakashima’s philosophy did not embrace mass production, he did collaborate with Knoll from 1945-1954 and on the Origins line with Widdicomb-Mueller between 1957 and 1961. Major commissions included furnishings for Nelson Rockefeller and Columbia University. His works are represented in the most important institutions in the world. Among many awards from the AIA and other prestigious institutions, Nakashima received the Third Order of the Sacred Treasure from the Emperor and Government of Japan. He received the designation "Living Treasure" in the United States, and he worked and exhibited until shortly before his death in June 1990, one week after receiving his final award, Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus, from the University of Washington.

Robert Rauschenberg was a seminal figure in American art whose innovative work bridged the gap between Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, profoundly influencing the direction of contemporary art. Born Milton Ernest Rauschenberg on October 22, 1925, in Port Arthur, Texas, he grew up in a working-class family: his father worked for the Gulf State Utilities power company and his mother was a frugal woman who made her family’s clothes from scraps (possibly influencing Rauschenberg’s later work with collage and assemblage).




After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Rauschenberg enrolled at the Kansas City Art Institute on the G.I. Bill. He later studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, where he met fellow artist Susan Weil, who would become his first wife. In 1948, Rauschenberg returned to the United States to study at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, an experimental institution that emphasized interdisciplinary collaboration. Here, he worked alongside influential figures like Josef Albers, John Cage, and Merce Cunningham, who significantly impacted his artistic development.




Rauschenberg's early works were influenced by Abstract Expressionism, but he quickly began to diverge from the movement's focus on pure abstraction and emotional intensity. Instead, he developed a unique approach that combined everyday objects and images with traditional art materials. This approach culminated in his Combines series, which he began in the mid-1950s. These works blurred the boundaries between painting and sculpture, incorporating materials such as fabric, newspaper, photographs, and even taxidermied animals. Notable pieces from this series include Monogram (1955-1959), featuring a taxidermied goat encircled by a tire, and Canyon (1959), which includes a stuffed eagle.




In 1964, Rauschenberg won the first prize for painting at the Venice Biennale, solidifying his international reputation and marking a turning point in his career. His success helped pave the way for the acceptance of American artists on the global stage and contributed to the rise of Pop Art. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rauschenberg continued to push the boundaries of art, experimenting with new techniques and technologies. This included a collaboration with engineers from Bell Laboratories on the Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) initiative, exploring the intersection of art and technology.




Rauschenberg's work was characterized by its playful, eclectic style and its embrace of chance and spontaneity. He often used silkscreen printing to incorporate photographic images into his paintings, creating layered, collage-like compositions. His use of found objects and everyday materials challenged traditional notions of what could be considered art. In addition to his artistic achievements, Rauschenberg was known for his philanthropic efforts. In 1984, he founded the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange (ROCI), a project aimed at promoting cultural exchange and understanding through art. He traveled to countries with politically and socially volatile environments, creating and exhibiting works that reflected the local cultures.




Rauschenberg received many honors during his lifetime. The Whitney Museum of Art held a retrospective of his work in 1990, and he won the Commandant de l'Ordre des Lettres from the French government in 1992, followed by the National Medal of the Arts in 1993. He was the focus of another retrospective exhibition in 1997 at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, which featured a staggering 467 works from the course of his career and took six years to prepare.




Rauschenberg created his eponymous foundation in 1990, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, to promote awareness of the causes he cared about. His legacy lives on in the foundation today as is evident in their powerful mission statement: “The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation primarily supports small to midsize arts and socially-engaged organizations that are contrarian and experimental, even courageous, in driving towards equity. In addition, the Foundation amplifies the creative life of artists and scholars across the disciplines through residencies, commissions, and accessible public platforms. Finally, the Foundation supports research, exhibitions, publications, academic partnerships and special projects across the globe that promote the legacy of Rauschenberg’s joyful, responsive, and irreverent approach to making work while living an empathetic and meaningful life.”