Hans J. Wegner

Wegner
Hans J.

DENMARK

		1914 Tønder 2007
Son of a shoe-maker in southern Jutland, Hans Wegner, finished his formal training as a cabinetmaker with master cabinetmaker Stahlberg in 1930 before starting at Teknologisk Institut in Copenhagen. He soon moved to the School of Arts and Crafts in the Danish capital where he became architect in 1938, and started teaching in 1946. In 1940 he joined Arne Jacobsen and Erik Møller in Arhus, to design the furniture for the new Arhus city hall. He started to work with 'minister' cabinetmaker Johannes Hansen in 1940 and showed his first furniture in the famous Hansen store on Bredgade 65 in 1941. Johannes Hansen was more than twice as old as the 26 year old Wegner but the unique collaboration between the two became the undisputed backbone of Danish furniture design and the main reason for it's world wide recognition in the fifties and sixties. The Copenhagen Museum of Art and Industry acquired the first Wegner chair in 1942. In 1943 he started his own design office in Gentofte. A year later he designed for Johannes Hansen the first of a long series of 'chinese' chairs. A series of at least nine chairs inspired by portraits of Danish merchants sitting in Ming chairs. Although most of them were designed for Fritz Hansen Eftf. the one designed in 1950 and produced by Carl Hansen & Søn in Odense became the most successful of all Wegner chairs. The most well known is the one used by Kennedy and Nixon in their famous CBS TV debate of 1960. The friendship between Hans J. Wegner and another pillar under the Danish furniture legend: Børge Mogensen, produced a child's chair and table that was still in production when the child it was designed for, Børge's son, was over 50 years old. Almost as sculptural as Finn Juhl's chairs, and as flawlessly proportioned as Børge Mogensen's Hans J. Wegner is the most innovative and prolific of all Danish furniture designers. He received almost all major honors given to designers, from the Lunning prize in 1951 and the grand prix of the Milan Triennale in the same year, to the Prince Eugen medal in Sweden and the Danish Eckersberg medal. In 1959 he was made honorary Royal designer for industry by the Royal Society of Arts in London. His furniture is part of all major design museum collections in the world: The Museum of Modern Art in N.Y., Die Neue Samlung in Munich and twenty other Museums. -KDW-

Hommage to Hans Wegner
Design Museum Gent
Gent (11-Jul-08 - 12-Oct-08)
This summer Design museum Gent is bringing a limited homage to Danish furniture designer - architect Hans Wegner. He is one of the designers to have made Danish design famous the world over, and he is a major name in the gallery of "Danish modernists".
Hans Wegner made a fundamental contribution to the reputable and highly timeless Scandinavian - read: Danish - design.
Wegner’s creations not only show his enormous creativity, but also his partiality for sound workmanship and a purified style. In light of the revival of design from the 50s and 60s, the timing for this homage is on the mark.

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FURNITURE [13]

Courtesy PP Møbler

'PP 58/3' Stacking Chair

D E S I G N E R
Hans J. Wegner

P R O D U C E R
PP Møbler, Denmark
1988

M A T E R I A L A N D D I M E N S I O N S
wood
Steam-bent back. Veneered or upholstered seat in fabric or leather.
H:70cm W:59cm D:50cm

Courtesy PP Møbler

'PP 701' Armchair

D E S I G N E R
Hans J. Wegner

P R O D U C E R
PP Møbler, Denmark
1965

M A T E R I A L A N D D I M E N S I O N S
wood + metal
Chromium tube frame. Seat upholstered in fabric or leather.
D:46cm W:63cm H:76cm