Today a little bit of history on a Danish designer that was the mastermind behind a few of my favorite MCM chairs.
Arne Jacobsen
1902-1971
Arne Jacobsen is the Danish
architect who master the most personal and successful interpretation of the
international functionalism. His architecture includes a considerable number of
epochmaking buildings in both Denmark, Germany and Great Britain. Arne Jacobsen
initially trained as a mason before studying architecture at the Royal Danish
Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, graduating in 1927.
From 1927 until 1930, he worked in the
architectural office of Paul Holsoe. In 1930, he established his own design
office, which he headed until his death in 1971, and worked independently as an
architect, interior, furniture, textile and ceramics designer. He was
proffessor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts, Copenhagen, from 1956
onwards. His best known projects are St. Catherine´s College, Oxford, and the
SAS Hotel, Copenhagen.
Arne Jacobsen´s designs came
into existence as brief sketches and were then modelled in plaster or cardboard
in full size. He kept on working until his revolutionary ideas for new furniture
had been realized at the utmost perfection. The "Ant" from 1952
became the starting point of his world fame as a furniture designer and became
the first of a number of lightweight chairs with seat and back in one oiece of
moulded wood.
Model "3107" from
1955 is often merely called " The Number Seven Chair". It was
launched in beech, black and white. The colour scale has through the years been
further developed by a.o. the Danish architect Verner Panton and the Danish
painter Poul Gernes 1925-96 and today includes a variety of colours in lacquer
or lazure as well as beech, maple, ash, and cherry. "3107" has become
the most important success in Danish furniture history - manufactured in more
than 5 million copies.
The Royal Hotel 1956-61,
situated in Copenhagen, is one of Arne Jacobsen´s masterpieces. For the
decoration of the hotel he designed several pieces of furniture, lamps and
fabrics, and also cutlery, glasses, and door handles. As significant
counterpoints to the stiffly upright, monumental building his easy chair, the
"Swan" and the "Egg", stand out as organic sculptures.
During the 1960´es Arne
Jacobsen turned to forms as the circle, cylinder, triangle, and cubus. On the
whole, his mind as an architect began to influence his design. Both the
stainless steel tableware set "Cylinda-Line" and the lamp series
"AJ" reflect this. Common to all Arne Jacobsen´s designs is that they
have become international design classics.
"The Ant" and
"The Number Seven" ´chairs made Arne Jacobsen world famous as a
furniture designer and made Fritz Hansen an international manufacturer of design and quality furniture.
Fritz Hansen´s collection of timeless furniture includes both well-known Danish
classics and more recent furniture series designed by Danish and international
designers.
the egg chair
the swan chair
the 3300 chair
the drop chair
The Egg chair is a definite on my personal wishlist. I can imagine curling up inside of it, it's just perfect from a design and functional standpoint. Someday I will have one.. some day...
