Lot 30: - J.B. Blunk 1926-2002 , Low Table

1965 redwood and epoxy

measurements 42.2 by 61.6 by 40.6 cm. alternate measurements 16 5/8 by 24 1/4 by 16 in.

Glenn Adamson, 'California Spirit: Rediscovering the Furniture of J.B. Blunk,' Woodwork, October 1999, p. 25 (for a variant side table)

Sculptor J.B Blunk began working with clay in 1952 in Japan. After meeting Isamu Noguchi in a mingei (craft) shop he was introduced to famed potter Rosanjin Kitaoji, who he later apprenticed with. After moving to Northern California in 1958 he was introduced, through Noguchi, to Surrealist painter Gordon Onslow Ford, who encouraged Blunk's creative development. Blunk began working with wood in the early 1960's first making stools and small tables and eventually earned commissions for large-scale wood environments and public works. All of his work is premised on a balanced symmetry that can be traced back to the forms and practices of the Japanese artists he worked with early on his career. Each piece by Blunk is a fully realised, unique expression. This table is from one of Blunk's earliest commissions, and is part of a group of furniture executed for a private residence in Montego Bay, Jamaica.