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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.
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Collections
Products
PK24 Lounge Chair
Poul Kjærholm's 1965 "Hammock Chair" chaise longue: leather on a brushed spring-steel frame
PK55 Office Table
The smaller of Poul Kjærholm's two 1957 worktables, ash veneer on a satin brushed steel frame
PK23 Lounge Chair
Poul Kjærholm's 1954 low lounge chair on a four-legged steel base, divided veneer shells
PK8 Chair
Poul Kjærholm's three-legged chair of sinuous curves, long a prototype, in leather and aluminium
PK52A Student Desk
Poul Kjærholm's PK52A Student Desk: painted black oak on a black steel frame, 141.5 x 85 cm
PK1 Chair
Poul Kjærholm's PK1 dining chair: a steel frame with a hand-woven natural paper cord seat
PK81 Daybed
Poul Kjærholm's square leather daybed, first made for the public area of a new town hall
PK11 Armchair
Poul Kjærholm's 1957 armchair for Fritz Hansen, on a three-legged stainless steel frame
PK111 Room Divider
Poul Kjærholm's six-panel Oregon pine room divider, designed for his own dining area and extendable
PK0 A Lounge Chair
Poul Kjærholm's 1952 sculptural lounge chair in pressure moulded veneer, in black ash or Oregon pine
PK20 Lounge Chair
Poul Kjærholm's 1968 easy chair in leather or wicker on a matt chromed spring-steel frame
PK3 Chair
Poul Kjærholm's 1954 split-shell chair in veneer on a tubular steel base, stackable
