Hans J. Wegner – The Chair Master
There is no getting away from Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007) when it comes to the heyday of Danish furniture design. His breakthrough came in the years immediately after the Second World War with the mention of Danish design in the American “Interiors” journal in 1950 – a major milestone. In it, Wegner’s “The Chair” was referred to as the world’s most beautiful chair. Ten years later, the same chair was used as an accessory in the world’s first televised election debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Not only did this signal the start of Wegner’s own world fame, but also the international breakthrough for Danish design in general.
“The Good Chair Is a Task One Is Never Completely Done With!”
Hans J. Wegner
Wegner created the idiom of his day in the 1950s and developed his distinctive design as a combination of modern functional forms and old Danish traditions of craftsmanship. The result was a wide range of furniture that exudes poetry, vitality and imagination. The pieces found their way into the homes of many people in the late 1960s and are still on the wish list of design enthusiasts worldwide.
For Wegner, the perfect piece of furniture was a utopia. This view was reflected in his special way of working, where many of his pieces served as archetypes, which he later further developed into other variations. So there are echoes of the “China Chair” in the “Y-chair”, and the shell design and folding furniture was a theme he returned to again and again. Wegner saw each experiment as a step along the way and viewed errors of judgement as part and parcel of the creative process.
The story of Wegner is also about the shoemaker’s son from Tønder, who, from a young age carved small figures out of wooden blocks used by his father as shoe lasts. In 1936, after graduating as a cabinetmaker, he was accepted into Kunsthåndværkerskolens Møbelskole (Denmark’s School of Art and Design at the Academy of Fine Arts) in Copenhagen. Wegner’s dual background gave him his in-depth feel for the natural character of wood and his unique sense of design. The Chair, Valet Chair, Papa Bear Chair, Y-chair and Dolphin Chair are just some of the pieces that have secured Wegner an inevitable place in international design history.
Highlights from Hans J. Wegner at the Auction
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