Poul Kjærholm

Poul Kjærholm was a Danish designer who was born on the 8^th of January 1929, and died on the 18^th of April 1980. This designer was a trained carpenter and furthered his studies his studies at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts. However it was not until1953, that he became a successful architect. He was known to be very clear and had a ordinary authority in relation to his career as an educator in the same year that he became a great architect.

Mostly, he was interested in different building materials such as steel, in which his opinion in relation to this material was that it was a natural material with the same artistic fineness as other natural materials. Poul Kjærholm was given an job at Fritz Hansen, that lasted for about a year, during which he designed a number of chair prototypes. It was nn 1955 were he started his collaboration with the manufacturer Ejvind Kold Christensen, which lasted until Poul Kjærholm died.

From the mid-1950s he worked for his friend Ejvind Kold Christiansen, who was an entrepreneur and give him incredible artistic freedom, and produced an extensive range of his furniture. He had an individual style which was evident as early as 1952 in his PKO minimalist plywood series.

In addition, in 1958 he attracted international approval for his contributions to the 'Formes Scandinaves' exhibition in Paris. In fact in both 1957 and 1960 he won the Grand Prize at the Milan Trennali.

In regards to furniture design, Most of his work was at first produced by his friend E. Kold Christensen in Hellerup. Since 1982 a wide selection of those products have been produced by Republic of Fritz Hansen, which was a leading Danish furniture manufacturing company. His designs may be found in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and other museum collections in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and also in Germany.

In typically Scandinavian fashion, most of Kjærholm’s contemporaries choose for wood as their favorite furniture construction material. Kjærholm however chose differently, he preferred to work with steel as his primary, however he always mixed it with other materials such as wood, leather, cane or marble. According to him: "Steel’s constructive potential is not the only thing that interests me; the refraction of light on its surface is an important part of my artistic work. I consider steel a material with the same artistic merit as wood and leather".

PK80

One of the designs attributed to this individual is the PK80 bench. This design is a collaboration to the attempt to combine the beautiful with the necessary.  This product is part of Fritz Hansen's "Poul Kjaerholm collection", and it is branded by its low height and eminent aesthetic. It contains a sculptural form which is right for any environment.  PK80 consists of a large buttoned cushion covered with leather. It rests on a painted plywood bedplate. Furthermore the base is satin-brushed stainless steel.

In 2004, his son established Kjærholm Productions responsible to produce the items of his father's furniture that Fritz Hansen had stopped producing in 2003.

Bibliography:

Public of Fritz Hansen.  Poul Kjaerholm. [Online] Available at: http://www.fritzhansen.com/en/designers/poul-kjærholm [Accessed on 29th December 2013]

Wikipedia. Poul Kjaerholm. [Online] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poul_Kjærholm [Accessed on 29th December 2013]

Hive. Poul Kjaerholm PK 80 bench. [Online] Available at: http://hivemodern.com/pages/product1730/fritz-hansen-poul-kjaerholm-pk80-bench [Accessed on 29st December 2013]