Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0016/00162.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 13KB | 255 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00162}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Denmark
Danish Design: It all Began with Furniture}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{F. Sieck}
$Affiliation{Press and Cultural Relations}
$Subject{danish
furniture
design
klint
young
industrial
products
still
copenhagen
designers
see
pictures
see
figures
}
$Date{1988}
$Log{See City Hall, Copenhagen*0016201.scf
}
Title:       Denmark
Book:        Fact Sheets on Denmark
Author:      F. Sieck
Affiliation: Press and Cultural Relations
Date:        1988

Danish Design: It all Began with Furniture

[See City Hall, Copenhagen: Courtesy Embassy of Denmark, Washington DC]

     All viable movements in art have sprung from the embryo of protest and
provocation. No exception was the revolt of the mid-1920s which directed
development of Danish design into the narrow path of self-criticism, a route
that a generation later - to the surprise of many - was to lead to the broad
highway of international acclaim.

The young provos

     The young rebels who set the ball rolling and gave Danish design its
fertile image - later to crystallise as 'Danish Modern' - included people like
Kare Klint (1888-1954), Kay Bojesen (1886-1958), Poul Henningsen (1894-1968),
Steen Eiler Rasmussen (1898-   ) and Viggo Sten Moller (1897-   ). Each in
his field but forming a broad, general front, they carried the banners of
protest. A nucleus of intense young artists, whose efforts as provocateurs,
critics and teachers are still reflected in every corner of contemporary
Danish design.

Danish furniture design

     In the course of 25 years exports of Danish furniture have soared from
zero to more than D.kr. 1,300 million p. a., and in per capita value only
Belgian exports can compete with Denmark. As Danish exports of other forms of
industrial art have expanded more or less in the shadow of furniture's
success, it would be useful to have the historical background to modern Danish
furniture design. Especially as the furniture story incorporates almost all
the typical developmental features of Danish design generally.

     Since the 17th century, Danish furnituremakers had depended on the
inspiration of long tradition and were clearly influenced by the outside
world. This trend continued unchanged throughout the period of general style
confusion and contempt for elementary quality standards which the brutal
industrialisation and mercantilisation of cabinetmaking produced in every
European country, culminating after World War I.

     It was this despicable treatment of quality and style the young
rebels - with an over-the-shoulder glance at the Bauhaus School - demonstrated
against. And not without response. In 1924 the Danish Royal Academy of Fine
Arts set up a lectureship in furniture design, and as the first head of what
became known as the furniture school the Academy appointed 36-years-old Kare
Klint. The event signalled an epoch with new horizons, leading to Danish
design as we now know it on the international scale - and with unmistakable
traces of Klint inspiration as artist and instructor.

First, the measurements

     Klint had studied originally at the Academy's school of painting. Later,
he studied under his father and on the latter's death, completed his principal
project: Grundtvig Church in Copenhagen.

     Klint the Younger produced relatively few furniture designs himself. But
most of what he did make is still in production, living monuments of a man
whose shadow has so far stretched over two generations of Danish designers.
There were those he himself influenced directly, people like Borge Mortensen,
and there are his pupil's pupils: Bernt, Rud Thygesen, Johnny Sorensen, etc.

     What put Klint ahead of his contemporaries was the idea, the discipline
and the method he attempted to realise both as designer and teacher. He had an
apparent aversion to putting his thoughts in writing; in the event he is
survived by only one relevant written version of his philosophy and
instructional techniques. It is an article in the magazine 'Arkitekten',
written in 1930 under the heading 'Teaching furniture design at the Academy'.
In the opening lines he managed to express the essence of his ideas:

     'Students who have not previously designed furniture start by measuring
an existing piece of furniture - whether old or modern is immaterial, provided
its primary form is still valid today.

     'After this preliminary study, instruction is given in the general
factors that decide the size and utility of an item of furniture. First, the
utility measurements, found from study of the human anatomy and movement
engaged in different activities. Then, an account of the objects stored in the
home ...etc.'

Designed and tailored for the user

     All very dry and theorical, true. But Klint's formulation of the
designer's philosophy in effect has been the basis for some of our most
searching performance analyses and market surveys of the functional setting
and needs of modern man in a domestic environment - and the Klint approach has
never been criticised. It is on the contrary a collection of universally
applicable norms affecting virtually every other field of Danish industrial
art and design.

     Klint employed his students for the measurements and analyses he
considered significant. For example, the dimensions of storage systems. How
far the human anatomy can reach in height and width. The layout of shelves.
The dimensions of shelves, trays, drawers and cupboards in relation to the
items they contain. The size of place settings at table. All the relevant,
everyday domestic problems. And last, but not least, the problems encountered
in chairmaking and seated comfort.

     The unyielding principle that furniture should first and foremost be
designed and tailored for the user placed Denmark on a design course that
branched increasingly off the mainstream of design theory in Western Europe.
The result was the emergence of a recognisable Danish furniture culture that
caught the world's eye around 1950 and turned out to be an amazing export
success.

     The development was aided by many designers who, without denying the
validity of the Klint ideal, cultivated a more liberal, sculptured idiom. One
of these was Finn Juhl, whose persistent love affair with teakwood brought
this material - formerly overlooked by most of the world - to the forefront of
Danish, and later European, furniture manufacture for more than two decades.

     Arne Jacobsen was another pioneer. As furniture designer, he created
moulded models that may perhaps live forever: his chairs, The Ant, The Egg,
and The Swan. But the most notable feature of his furniture, textiles, lamps,
glass, cutlery and other objects of industrial design is undoubtedly that they
have invariably been conceived as integral details in his architectural
designs.

Manufacturers and designers unite

     It has been said that exports will develop only if the domestic market is
healthy. And there is no doubt that Klint and his students could never have
launched their ideas if they had not been received favourable by producers and
consumers.

     In this connection a step taken in 1927 by the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers'
Guild was decisive: the Guild organised an exhibition of members' work. The
event proved so popular with the public that it became an annual exhibition.

     For 40 years - from 1927 to 1966 - the Guild held a yearly display of the
best products created by members during the preceding 12 months. Excellent
stuff, usually the result of a union of young designers and farsighted
producers. Each had something fresh to bring to the development of this
fruitful epoch of Danish furniture design.

     Youth, like fashion, is a volatile quality. Gone almost before it has had
time to register, and it tends to freeze in a permanent pattern. The
Copenhagen Guild avoided this fate because there was a constant flow of new,
young replacements to inject novelty into the inspired relationship between
cabinetmaker and designer. Filling the shoes of those designers who had now
moved on to industrial design and production.

     In the early 1950s the annual exhibitions took on an accentuated
importance as a source of inspiration for Denmark's furniture industry, whose
expansion on the export market necessitated a continuous process of
rejuvenation. It would by no means be misleading to say that during this
period members of the Guild acted as product-developers for industry. The
consequence was that while industrial enterprises enjoyed a sustained boost,
the more manually based workshops of the oldfashioned cabinetmaker, unable to
adapt to the conditions of industry, gradually lost ground and were forced out
of business. Thus the very basis of the annual cabinetmakers' exhibitions
crumbled and collapsed.

A forum for young craftsfolk

     Another crucially significant event should be noted here. In 1931 Kay
Bojesen, whose special field was silverworking, and Christian Grauballe, head
of the Holmegaard Glassworks, took the initiative in setting up what became
known as The Permanent Exhibition of Danish Arts and Crafts (or simply Den
Permanente). It was installed in Vesterport, a new building complex, and has
remained there ever since.

     The idea of Den Permanente was to create a forum where young, talented
artist-craftsmen (and women!) could exhibit their products - and have them
sold. It meant, of course, the stipulation of certain quality standards, which
were applied by a committee of impartial judges. But the principle inevitably
introduced a competitive element and challenge. Simply to pass through the
judges' needle-eye and gain entry to Den Permanente is still for many young
artists a significant milestone in their careers.

Scandinavian Furniture Fair

     Foreigners' interest in Danish design is obvious at the annual spring
exhibition, Scandinavian Furniture Fair, at Bella Center - visited each year
by about 10,000 guests from abroad. The Center has a mart in its two top
storeys, with a permanent exhibition of the work of 200 leading Scandinavian
manufacturers. And it is clear here - at both the mart and the fair - how
textiles, lighting and other arts and crafts huddle together under the ray of
constant, solid interest shining on the furniture industry.

Textiles in Danish design

     Danish design is represented by more than just furniture, however.
Although in terms of world success a story of more modest proportions, Danish
furnishing fabrics have a long, honourable history. It was revived by such
outstanding artists as Poula Trock and Lis Ahlmann, and revolutionised by
Painter Gunnar Agard Andersen, who more than 20 years ago created the
unrivalled, undying fabrics M and Bolivia, based on an ingenious blend of
colours. An idea later refined by people like Nanna Ditzel and Verner Panton.

     In the domestic interior lighting can be as decisive a factor as
furniture and textiles. In this field Poul Henningsen is still master but he
has worthy successors in Verner Panton, Jorgen Gammelgaard, Claus Bonderup
and Torsten Thorup.

Beauty of a well-decorated table

     The Danes have always been partial to culinary pleasures. And have always
appreciated the aesthetic pleasure to be derived from a well-decorated table
with its delightful details. Danish glass traditions have been perpetuated by
Per Lutken, Michael Bang and Sidse Werner. Danish silver has been given fresh
lease of life by Georg Jensen, Kay Bojesen and Henning Koppel. The Danish
porcelain industry, still selling designs popular after more than a century,
continues to develop new, fine products, created by Gertrud Vasegaard, Grete
Meyer, Henning Koppel and Erik Magnussen. And ceramic art, influenced by
diametrically opposites, such as Axel Salto and Bjorn Wiinblad or Natalie
Krebs and Finn Lynggard, blossoms and develops in hundreds of workshops.

Danish design on other fronts

     The awareness of design that arose as a product of arts and crafts has
made itself felt in other fields, too. What we now call industrial design is
more than a code-word; it has become an integral function of product
development and marketing as practised by most major Danish industrial
concerns, giving products a special punch on the hard-hitting international
market.

     There are many examples of successful Danish industrial products with a
sizable share of the export market. Ranging from the smallest microcomputers
to the largest diesel- and turbine-engined tankers, from Lego's plastics
building blocks to the TV, radio and stereo products of Bang & Olufsen. A
detailed list in this context would be too extensive, but anyone interested in
further information on a particular product line should contact:
Industriradet, Federation of Danish Industries, H. C. Andersens Boulevard 18,
DK-1596 Copenhagen V.