George Nakashima “Kevin” side table, 1967
Description
George Nakashima “Kevin” side table, American walnut, USA, 1967
George Nakashima represents a milestone in the history of international design. The American designer conceived the “Kevin” table in 1967, where the structure becomes story—a narrative of balance, tension, and reverence for material. It is not merely a table, but an architectural gesture: a quiet yet deliberate exploration of asymmetry and mass, expressed entirely in American black walnut. At first glance, the table appears to defy equilibrium. A cantilevered top—broad, hovering—extends gracefully over a base that resists conventional symmetry. Instead of twin supports, a single cylindrical shaft rises with sculptural clarity, grounded by a base whose geometry challenges the expected. Here, balance is not imposed but discovered, calibrated through intuitive engineering and the timeless intelligence of joinery.
Nakashima’s approach is not ornamental, but elemental. Each decision—each butterfly key inset to tame a natural fissure, each exposed mortise-and-tenon joint anchoring the structure—is a dialogue with the wood’s own will. To him, walnut was not raw material, but a living participant. Its grain is not hidden but exalted, revealed through hand-planed surfaces that invite touch and age with dignity.
The “Kevin” table stands within the legacy of the American studio furniture movement, where figures like Frank Lloyd Wright, Karl Springer, and Edward J. Wormley redefined craft as a mode of personal and cultural expression. In Nakashima’s hands, furniture became architecture at the scale of the human body—a sacred convergence of nature, craft, and spiritual clarity.
Dimensions
Height: 21.85 in (55,5 cm)
Width: 33.46 in (85 cm)
Depth: 31.69 in (80,5 cm)
Top Height: 19.09 in (48,5 cm)
Design
1967
Manufacture
1960-1969
Material
Persian walnut
Condition
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