Paul Laszlo : Sumptuous Modernity – Designer to the Stars
Hungarian born architect and interior designer Paul Laszlo (1900-1993) learned about the world of architecture and design through his father, a furniture manufacturer. After studying in Vienna and training in Stuttgart, Germany, he founded a studio at the age of 27, which would lead to his international reputation as a designer for the jet set. […]
Dan Johnson : Sculptural Modernism
Post War California Furniture Designer
The majority of the postwar California furniture designers found inspiration in free-form biomorphic shapes with forward-looking parabolic forms utilizing experimental materials, designer Dan Johnson (1918-1979) was an exception. While Johnson’s earlier furniture pieces (late 1940s) looked more familiar, with folded planes of wood, blocky modern forms, and integrated pulls, his style drastically shifted after moving […]
PIERRE JEANNERET: TRADITIONAL FUTURIST
Swiss architect and designer Pierre Jeanneret (1896 – 1967) collaborated with his well-known cousin Charles Edouard Jeanneret (aka Le Corbusier) for about twenty years. Pierre Jeanneret was brought on to design the furniture for India’s city of Chandigarh, at the urging of Le Corbusier (who was the project’s architect). Chandigarh was a new modern model […]
Erich Dieckmann: Balanced Bauhaus
Berlin-born designer Erich Dieckmann (1896-1944) is one of the most important furniture designers of the Bauhaus. Much like Marcel Breuer, Dieckmann experimented with steel tubing and its application in the design of furniture – however, he is primarily known for his pieces in wood. In 1921, he enrolled at the Bauhaus in Weimar and between […]
Illum Wikkelsø | Biomorphic Beauty
Designer Illum Wikkelsø, one of the lesser known Danish designers, crafted rich, organic Scandinavian pieces in the 1950’s and 60’s. Following the path of most Danish designers at the time, Wikkelsø studied cabinetry, graduating from the Copenhagen School of Arts & Crafts. He held positions with cabinetmaker Jacob Kjaer and the firm of Peter Hvidt […]
Poul Kjaerholm: Superb SteelCraft
Danish designer Poul Kjaerholm began his creative career as a cabinetmaker’s apprentice and continued his studies at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen in 1952. While studying under masters Hans Wegner and Jørn Utzon (an industrial designer and architect of the Sydney Opera House) he honed his use of industrial methods and […]