Further Details

Title: The Chieftain and the Chair
Condition: New
Format: Hardback
Subtitle: The Rise of Danish Design in Postwar America
ISBN-10: 022655032X
EAN: 9780226550329
ISBN: 9780226550329
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Release Date: 22/05/2023
Description: A history of how Danish design rose to prominence in the postwar United States, becoming shorthand for stylish modern comfort.

Today, Danish Modern design is synonymous with clean, midcentury cool. During the 1950s and ‘60s, it flourished as the furniture choice for Americans who hoped to signal they were current and chic. But how did this happen? How did Danish Modern become the design movement of the times? In The Chieftain and the Chair, Maggie Taft tells the tale of our love affair with Danish Modern design. Structured as a biography of two iconic chairs—Finn Juhl’s Chieftain Chair and Hans Wegner’s Round Chair, both designed and first fabricated in 1949—this book follows the chairs from conception and fabrication through marketing, distribution, and use.

Drawing on research in public and private archives, Taft considers how political, economic, and cultural forces in interwar Denmark laid the foundations for the postwar furniture industry, and she tracks the deliberate maneuvering on the part of Danish creatives and manufacturers to cater to an American market. Taft also reveals how American tastemakers and industrialists were eager to harness Danish design to serve American interests and how furniture manufacturers around the world were quick to capitalize on the fad by flooding the market with copies.

Sleek and minimalist, Danish Modern has experienced a resurgence of popularity in the last few decades and remains a sought-after design. This accessible and engaging history offers a unique look at its enduring rise among tastemakers.


Language: English
Country/Region of Manufacture: US
Item Height: 191mm
Item Length: 152mm
Item Width: 23mm
Author: Maggie Taft
Genre: Fashion & Design
Item Weight: 540g
Release Year: 2023

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