Beauty Sparkling

Posts Tagged ‘Arts’

Poul Kjaerholm (1929-1980) was one of the finest furniture designers of the 20th Century and the last major designer to emerge from Danish furniture tradition. Unlike many of his contemporaries like Mies Van Der Rohe, Arne Jacobsen or George Nelson, Kjaerholm was not an architect. Instead his background was of a cabinetmaker and designer, this craftsmanship approach to the details and materials is evident in all his work. He went on to lecture at Royal Danish Academy if Fine Arts and finally became a professor in 1976. Kjaerholm’s artistic ideology never left him throughout his career and he had uncompromising approach to design above but not necessarily over functionality. Kjaerholm’s work stands out above most other designers of that time who were experimenting with wood and plastic, Kjaerholm on the other hand despite his background as a carpenter and cabinet maker preferred the more industrial material of the time steel. Although he did not exclusively use the material it did dominate much of his work. It was not only the strength, durability and shapes he could construct out of steel that interested him but also the playfulness of light reflecting and refracting off its surface.

Kjaerholm always combined steel with other materials like leather, wood and marble to create a contrast between the organic and the industrial. Arguably his most famous design was the PK22 chair. The chairs cantilevered brushed steel seat is stabilized by a double cross beam that is precisely positioned so the body rests naturally without a hard front edge or top rail. The chair sits low to the ground and bears a striking resemblance to Mies Van Der Rohe’s earlier Barcelona Chair of which Kjaerholm was heavily inspired. However, the ultra minimalist PK22 chair is a design classic in its own right. Elegant clean crisp lines show the delicacy and precision of traditional woodworking skills on industrial steel and soft Italian leather. The designer chair was an immediate commercial and critical success after its inception in 1956 winning the Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale in 1957, the finest distinction at the show. In the same year Kjaerholm’s PK22 chair also won the legendary “Lunning award”. The chair is a true design classic and works as a piece of art when dropped into an architectural space. The PK22 chair now resides along with much of his other work in the V&A museum in London and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) where his furniture is also used throughout the galleries and other public areas.