Designer
Poul Kjærholm
Poul Kjærholm (1929–1980) was a Danish furniture designer born in Østervrå, Denmark. He began as a cabinetmaker's apprentice with Grønbech in 1948 and attended the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen from 1952. In 1953 he…
Biography
Background
Poul Kjærholm (1929–1980) was a Danish furniture designer born in Østervrå, Denmark. He began as a cabinetmaker's apprentice with Grønbech in 1948 and attended the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen from 1952. In 1953 he married Hanne Kjærholm, who became a successful architect.
Signature Style
Where most of his Scandinavian contemporaries built in wood, Kjærholm chose steel as his primary material — always combined with other materials such as wood, leather, cane or marble. He valued steel not only for its constructive potential but for the way light is refracted on its surface, and worked like a "furniture architect" through functional models.
Notable Works
- PK25 lounge chair (1951/52), cut from a single sheet of steel
- PK61 coffee table (1955)
- PK22 lounge chair (1956)
- PK80 daybed (1957), PK24 chaise longue (1965), PK20 rocking chair (1967)
Legacy
He won the Lunning Prize in 1958 and the Grand Prize at the Milan Triennale in 1957 and 1960, taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and became its professor in 1976. Since 1982 Fritz Hansen has produced a wide selection of his furniture, and his designs are held by MoMA and the V&A.
