Christoffer Harlang, Keld Helmer-Petersen and Krestine Kjærholm [Editors]: POUL KJÆRHOLM. København: Arkitektens Forlag, 1999. First edition. Text in English. Quarto. Cream cloth titled in gray. Printed vellum dust jacket. Green wove endpapers. 192 pp. Fully illustrated essays with photography by Keld Helmer-Petersen. Front panel of vellum jacket lightly wrinkled [as usual]. A nearly fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket.
9.75 x 12 hardcover book with 192 pages devoted to the lifes work of Poul Kjærholm, with photography by Keld Helmer-Petersen and essays by Nils Fagerholt, Christoffer Harlang, Ulf Hård af Segerstad, Ole Palsby, and others. Outstanding photographs of the furniture by Keld Helmer-Petersen form a large central section of the book. Helmer-Petersen produced record photographs for Kjærholm and they worked together on several exhibitions that included very large black-and-white images of landscape and urban views by the photographer.
The text takes the form of separate and independent essays. These provide an overview of the life and work of the designer with important insights into his approach to design and his methods of work and the essays assess the development of his ideas and theories. All the contributors knew or worked directly with Kjærholm.
The foreword to the book is by Jørn Utzon who taught Kjærholm and then there are five separate essays and a ‘conversation’ or interview by Axel Thygesen and Arne Karlsen with Poul Kjærholm from 1963.
In the first essay, Architect and Furniture Designer, Erik Krogh identifies an important and intriguing division in the furniture designs between sculptural forms, such as the extraordinary chair made of two shells, and the disciplined and restrained architectural pieces that reduce chairs to a series of flat planes.
Kjærholm’s control of space is discussed further in the section on Exhibitions and Special Spaces by Nils Fagerholt that includes photographs of a room setting for the Museum of Applied Arts in Trondheim from 1952; the displays of his own work that Kjærholm designed in galleries and showrooms in Copenhagen; and exhibitions in Milan, Montreal and Paris where, generally, his furniture was set out within a grid defined by large photographs that formed screens and by simple large rugs and by a precise use of lines of pendant lights to reinforce the division of larger space into smaller, simple and clearly-defined areas.
An important essay by Ole Palsby - Setting a Standard - explores the role of Ejvind Kold-Christensen in the development, manufacture and promotion of the designs by Kjærholm.
Ulf Hård af Segerstad in the essay Poul Kjærholm - An Architect, Not a Designer reinforces the view that the furniture has to be assessed in terms of the space it occupies and Christoffer Harlang in Lightness and Weight puts the works by Kjærholm within the broader context of Danish architecture in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally, there is a succinct biographical resumé and then a full list of designs by Poul Kjærholm from 1948 through to 1980 that are arranged chronologically and includes designs that were not put into production.
Includes product photos and/or details for all your favorites: Chair no. 25 [1951], Chair no. 22 [1956], Chair no. 9 [1960], Armchair no. 11 [1957], Stool no. 33 [1959], Folding Stool Nr. 91 [1961], Sofa no. 26 [1956], Sofa no. 31/3 [1958], Suspended Sofa Element no. 26 [1956], Bench no. 80 [1957], Extension Ring no. 54 [1963], Table no. 61 [1956], Table no. 51 [1957], Table no. 71 [1957], Table no. 54 [1963] and Candlestick no. 101 [1956], and many others.
A trained cabinetmaker, Poul Kjærholm’s (1929 – 1980) use of industrial methods and materials in the 1960s brought a fresh, graceful, sleek new style to Danish modern design. At Copenhagen’s School of Arts and Crafts, Kjærholm studied under Hans Wegner and Jørn Utzon — an industrial designer and the architect of the celebrated Sydney Opera House. The latter greatly influenced Kjærholm’s furniture production techniques — although he employed natural materials such as cane and leather, to a far greater extent than his peers Kjærholm embraced the use of steel (rather than wood) framing for his chairs and tables.
Kjærholm’s signal design was the PK 22 chair of 1956, a low-slung leather lounger on a steel base. The ideas introduced in the PK 22 — Kjærholm’s designs were named using a numeric system devised with his manufacturer, E. Kold Christensen — were refined throughout his career, the PK 11 chair of 1957, with back and armrests formed by a semicircle of ash; the capacious, richly patinated leather seat of a vintage 1961 PK 9 chair; the elegant rattan swoop of the PK 24 chaise longue (1965). The chaise longue's leather headrest, held in place by a steel counterweight, best shows Kjærholm's particular gift for combining technological advancements with a respect for traditional detailing. While respectful of the past, Poul Kjærholm's sensibility is one of optimism and expectation. His was design for those who lived with verve and élan, and confidently anticipated the future.
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