Poul Kjærholm | Natural Simplicity

POUL KJÆRHOLM

NATURAL SIMPLICITY

Poul Kjærholm (1929-1980) was born in Øster Vrå, a small town located in the rugged landscape of Northern Jutland. Initially he trained as a cabinetmaker, before moving to Copenhagen to study furniture design at the School of Arts and Crafts, from where he graduated in 1952. His long-standing association with The Royal Danish Academy of Arts began in 1955, first as a teaching assistant, then lecturer and culminating in a Professorship in 1976 succeeding Professors Kaare Klint and Ole Wanscher.

The foundation for Kjærholm’s work was a thorough understanding of materials and an ability to highlight their natural qualities. Kjærholm was strongly rooted in the Danish furniture tradition but he was equally fascinated by international functionalism, in particular the leading figures Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer – an inspiration that is manifested in his love of steel. In contrast to his contemporaries, Kjærholm believed that steel should be processed with the same sensitivity as traditionally practiced with wood. He thereby created a continuum of the Danish cabinetmaking discipline with the same standards for quality, materiality and form.

Kjærholm spent the first year after graduation at Fritz Hansen Furniture Makers, working primarily with developing prototypes and experimenting with materials. The position ended after less than a year, after which Kjærholm continued to experiment independently, developing prototypes in steel wire, cast aluminium, sheet metal and reinforced concrete, none of which went into production.

In 1955 furniture manufacturer Ejvind Kold Christensen contacted Kjærholm and the two men agreed to form a partnership that would produce and market all of Kjærholm’s future work. The lifelong collaboration with Kold Christensen was a new beginning for Kjærholm which allowed him to unfold his full potential, designing furniture defined solely by its function and materials.

Ultimate simplicity is rarely as simple as it seems. It is often just the opposite; the manifestation of persistent and deliberate engagement and complex thinking. Kjærholm mastered the difficult art of designing furniture with natural obviousness and elegance despite the complexity of their design and execution.

To complement Kjærholm’s light and minimalist idiom, the furniture is presented in dialogue with renowned Cypriot designer Michael Anastassiades’ lighting design. Anastassiades’ consistent materiality and aesthetics embody a poetic simplicity that exudes vitality. In combination with Anastassiades’ lamps, Kjærholm’s unique sense of space and uncompromising focus on entirety is highlighted.

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Pair of PK12 chairs, 1964 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK51 work table, 1957 Matt, chrome-plated steel and ash Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK31/4 sofa, 1974 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK71 set of nesting tables, 1957 Matt, chrome-plated steel and polished acrylic Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK80 daybed, 1957 Matt, chrome-plated steel , painted plywood and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK61 coffee table, 1956 Matt, chrome-plated steel and Porsgrunn marble Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Pair of PK25 chairs, 1951 Matt, chrome-plated steel and halyard Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK13 chair, 1974 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK101 candelabra, 1956 Matt, chrome-plated steel Made by E. Kold Christensen

In 1955, Poul Kjærholm began teaching at the Department of Furniture Design at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. The department was founded by Kaare Klint in 1924 and became one of the most significant institutions in 20th century Danish design. By combining rational analyses and functional forms with high-quality craftsmanship and a refined sense of materials, Klint introduced the principles of modern Danish design and influenced generations of renowned furniture architects.

After Klint’s death in 1954, one of his former students, Ole Wanscher, took over the prominent position as Professor of Furniture Design. The following year, Wanscher not only hired Kjærholm as a teaching assistant but also commissioned him to design desks and drawing cabinets for the students and instructors at the Academy’s School of Architecture. Though Kjærholm never studied directly under Klint, his Academy furniture stands out as a clear testament to the hallmarks of the Klint School. Like Klint, Kjærholm pursued the essence and universal nature of each furniture type. He wanted to create furniture that was devoid of style - defined solely by function and the texture and honesty of the materials.

The desks and drawing cabinets were designed with a clear focus on functional requirements and display a stringent, geometric simplicity that emphasizes the character of the materials and the skills of the cabinetmaker. The drawing cabinet consists of a simple wood box with ten shallow drawers in solid Oregon pine that is supported on a welded steel frame. The only decorative details are the hand-cut dovetailed joints and the advanced integral drawer pulls, masterly executed by the cabinetmakers at Rud. Rasmussen. The present example belongs to the first limited production of drawing cabinets made for the Academy in 1955. In total 31 ten-drawer cabinets were produced between 1955 and 1957. In the following years, the ten-drawer model was replaced by a version with nine drawers. The Academy cabinet is yet another refined example of Kjærholm’s ability to mix natural and industrial materials and create a transparent structure that makes the role of each material absolutely clear. His constructional experiments and innovative approach to materials were always combined with the warm finishes and quality of the handicraft tradition.

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Academy cabinet, 1955 Oregon pine and steel Designed for the School of Architecture at the Royal Academy, Copenhagen Made by Rud. Rasmussen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Academy desk, 1955 Black-oxidized steel and Oregon pine Designed for the School of Architecture at the Royal Academy, Copenhagen Made by Rud. Rasmussen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK50 table, 1964 PK50 table, 1964 Matt, chrome-plated steel and mahogany Matt, chrome-plated steel and mahogany Made by E. Kold Christensen Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK32/2 highback sofa, 1974 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK61 coffee table, 1956 Matt, chrome-plated steel and glass Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Set of six PK1 chairs, 1956 Matt, chrome-plated steel and cane Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK33 stool, 1959 Matt, chrome-plated steel, painted wood and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Pair of PK91 folding stools, 1961 Matt, chrome-plated steel and canvas Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Prototype coffee table, 1952 Painted plywood and glass Made by Fritz Hansen Exhibitied at the Museum of Applied Arts in Zurich, 1952

This prototype coffee table belongs to the earliest phase of Kjærholm’s work. Designed in 1952 it displays an idiom that is much more experimenting and sculptural than the stringent minimalism for which he is renowned. After graduating from the School of Arts and Crafts in 1951 Kjærholm was hired by Fritz Hansen to experiment with materials and new types of structures and the table was one of the extraordinary accomplishments that came out of this research.

The table was clearly inspired by Isamu Noguchi’s coffee table designed in 1944, but while Noguchi’s table was a clear nod to the formal language of late surrealism; a sculpture that also served as a table, Kjærholm’s design developed from his experiments with the structural capacities of laminated wood. By combining the inherent stability of a triangular base with the strength of laminated wood curves, Kjærholm created a masterly, sculptural frame that, despite its apparent free-form, foretold some of his later works in steel. The three-legged structure reappears in his PK 9 dining chair where the base is made of three curved pieces of steel, just as a triangular construction, though in a much more stringent variant, forms the base of the PK 56 dining table. The present table belonged to the family of Jørgen Høyer, a man who worked with Poul Kjærholm in Fritz Hansen’s office in Christianshavn from 1950 to 1952.

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Pair of PK11, 1957 Matt, chrome-plated steel, ash and parchment Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK64 coffee table, 1968 Matt, chrome-plated steel and Greenland marble Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Pair of PK20 chairs, 1968 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Set of six PK12 chairs, 1964 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK54 table, 1963 Matt, chrome-plated steel, flint-rolled Carrara marble and maple Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK9 chair, 1960 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Set of six PK11 chairs, 1957 Matt, chrome-plated steel, ash, vegetable-tanned leather and canvas Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK91 folding stool, 1961 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen Provance: Architect Erik Christian Sørensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) JØRGEN HØJ (1925-1994) Lounge chair, 1952 Ash and halyard Made by Thorald Madsen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) Pair of PK9 chairs, 1960 Matt, chrome-plated steel and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

POUL KJÆRHOLM (1929-1980) PK24 chaise longue, 1965 Stainless steel, cane and vegetable-tanned leather Made by E. Kold Christensen

Dansk Møbelkunst Gallery Aldersrogade 6C, 1 DK-2100 Copenhagen Denmark +45 3332 3837 info@dmk.dk www.dmk.dk copyright: Dansk Møbelkunst ApS 2023 Thank you Studio Michael Anastassiades Anker & Co.