Poul Kjaerholm was one of the leading figures in the history of 20th-century Danish design. Architect, designer and craftsman, the objects he created remain to this day classics of minimalist design.
Poul Kjaerholm – biography
Poul Kjaerholm was born on 9 January 1929 in Ostervra, Denmark, completing his training as a cabinetmaker in 1949. In 1952, he received a diploma from the Copenhagen Vocational Arts College, and taught from 1955 to 1976 at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
From the mid-1950s onwards, Kjaerholm worked for Ejvind Kold Christensen, who produced a series of his furniture. 1952 saw the start of the PK series, from which emerged, among other designs, the PK0 and PK25 Chairs and the PK61 Coffee Table.
Along with Arne Jacobsen, Poul Henningsen, Verner Panton and Hans J Wegner, Poul Kjaerholm is considered to be one of the main proponents of Danish design. His work can be found in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection in New York, as well as at London’s V&A Museum and other museums in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Germany.
Poul Kjaerholm received international acclaim in 1958 for his participation in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs’s “Formes Scandinaves” exhibition in Paris and, the same year, received the Lunning Award for his PK22 Armchair. In both 1957 and 1960, he was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix during the Triennale di Milano. In addition, he was recognised in 1967 with the Danish ID prize for product design.
PK22 Armchair – Kjaerholm’s commercial breakthrough
Poul Kjaerholm designed the PK22 armchair in 1956 for furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen. Its reduced, minimalist expression, clearly influenced by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Chair, communicates simple elegance and set a new standard for Scandinavian furniture design.
In designing his PK22 Armchair, Poul Kjaerholm considered every last detail. He was determined to bring to bear the experience he had gained in designing the PK25 Armchair, optimising levels of comfort. He went on to revisit the aims of the PK22 in a number of his subsequent designs, for example his PK24 Chaise Longue (1965) and the PK29 Lounge Chair (1967), both of which echo the characteristic elegant lines of the PK22 Armchair.
PK61 Coffee Table – minimalist, exclusive design
The PK61 Coffee Table, designed in 1956 for Ejvind Kold Christensen, is one of Poul Kjaerholm’s best-known pieces. It was authored to complement the PK22 Armchair. The PK61 Coffee Table is an elegant, highly functional glass table with a robust steel frame, and epitomises Kjaerholm’s fascination with a range of materials. Its rational form and clean lines make it an exemplary piece of modern design.
PK24 Chaise Longue – pure modernism
Die PK24 Chaise Longue was designed by Poul Kjaerholm in 1965 for manufacturer Ejvind Kold Christensen. With its high-quality materials and organic form, it is possibly the most celebrated of Kjaerholm’s pieces. Kjaerholm took his inspiration from the Rococo period and the classic French chaise longue. The result typifies Kjaerholm’s design approach: an emphasis on the role of gravity and friction in bringing together the piece’s various elements, rather than an over-technical solution – the reason why the PK24 is also referred to as the Hammock Chair.
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