Arne Jacobsen, Danish architect and designer: short biography, works in architecture, designer furniture

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Strive for perfection and success will invariably take you by surprise. The colossal success of Arne Jacobsen, who accompanied him throughout his life, is an example of a happy fate and the envy of ordinary people. The architect himself did not strive for titles and regalia, he simply loved his work to the point of insanity, and it reciprocated.

The great power of art

What do brilliant people in any field have in common? Be it a composer, artist, writer, programmer, etc.? All of them are united by one thing - they are selflessly devoted to their passion. They are completely immersed in their favorite activity, they give it all their time and all their feelings, and only on this basis are masterpieces born.

Danish designer Arne Jacobsen was such a passionate and talented person. He was born in Copenhagen in 1902 to a Jewish family. The authority of parents and the obedience of children were the foundations of family traditions. Therefore, it was natural for young Arne to become a student after graduating from the Technological Societya bricklayer, because his father believed that a man should have a profession that would feed both him and his family. It was also natural to get parental permission to study at the Royal Academy of Arts.

In love for life

While still a student, Arne went to the International Exhibition of Decorative Arts in Paris. Even then, he received a silver medal for the creation of a designer rattan chair, which will be called the Paris Chair - as a reminder of that event.

But not so much this victory brought joy to the young designer as contact with the works of masters in the field of architecture. It is impossible not to fall in love with the work of Le Corbusier, a French architect, artist and designer. If his architectural and design ideas still fascinate with their freshness and originality, then in 1925 they simply amazed the imagination and changed all ideas about architecture and design.

Young Arne was thrilled to visit Le Corbusier's innovative pavilion L'Esprit Nouveau (The New Spirit), built of glass and concrete. Here he confirmed his desire to follow the path of the famous master. From Paris, he travels to Germany to plunge into the world of the German Bauhaus W alter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe. The impressions left by these trips will finally form the author's credo. It will be expressed throughout his life in his work as a love for simple minimalism and functionalism.

At least hang a clock

Inspired by new ideas, Arne Jacobsen begins to make his dreams come true. Winning the competition of the Danish Association of Architects in 1929 made it possible to build a "House of the Future" for the exhibition of the Copenhagen Forum. In the 30s, he was engaged in the construction of houses in the capital of Denmark and its environs. The most famous project is the Bellavista residential complex, which includes residential buildings, a gas station, a beach, the Bellevue Theater and a hippodrome.

Despite its popularity in creative circles, the work of Arne Jacobsen in the field of architecture is not always clear to the average layman. Protest moods and angry statements prevented the construction of the main attraction in Bellavista - a tower with a revolving restaurant.

Also, residents of the city of Aarhus demonstrated their lack of understanding of newfangled trends. The new project of the town hall was so different from the usual buildings that the townspeople were indignant: “At least hang a clock so that we don’t confuse the town hall with the factory.” I had to complete the traditional clock tower. A few years later, the city hall was included in the Danish Cultural Canon - a list of 108 works of art and architecture protected by the state.

Guarded by fate

In 1940, Denmark was occupied by the Nazis. Nazi Germany considered the Danes to be the closest in race to the Germans, and therefore the occupation regime was the mildest. Jews were not touched until 1943. When the news swept through the country that arrests of the Jewish population would soon begin, funds were raised to evacuate people. Under the cover of night, secretly, on fishing boats, Jews were transported to neighboring Sweden. On one ofsuch boats were transported by Arne Jacobsen and his family.

He didn't have an architectural permit in Sweden, but the creative mind can't be idle. Therefore, the architect is working on the design of textiles and wallpapers. Wallpapers with graphic and floral designs, developed in those years, are still produced by the Swedish factory Boras Tapeter.

Not only at home

An integrated approach to the design of buildings included: the design and design of adjacent territories, interior decoration, textiles, furniture, utensils - everything was done in the same style. There were no trifles for the designer here, he could work on the creation of a table set for two years. Therefore, pieces of furniture made by the master made him famous all over the world.

In 1951, for the Ant chair, Arne Jacobsen used for the first time the technology of a smooth transition of the back to the seat. The chair, made from a single piece of molded plywood, resembles the silhouette of an ant. It was developed for a pharmaceutical company. The designer was tasked with designing a lightweight, stackable chair. The design of the chair was so successful that it went into mass production and sold over a million pieces worldwide.

Spy Scandal…

In 1955, the designer designed the Model 3107 chair, or simply Serie7. This specimen was shaped like an hourglass. Made of beech, it embodied the same innovative idea, when the back and seat are one. Although the chair itself is good, butfamous for him, as well as for his creator, was the espionage scandal that broke out in 1963 in the UK.

Stephen Ward, a well-known osteopathic doctor and portrait painter, was known in London not so much for his professional merits as for the fact that he knew how to throw VIP parties in his house. Among the regular visitors to the entertainments were British Secretary of War John Profumo and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Representatives of the fair sex served as an obligatory decoration of the evening. One of the brilliant persons was Christine Keeler, who conquered with her beauty and ability to conduct conversations. The USSR Naval Attache Yevgeny Ivanov, who also could not resist the charms of the beauty, entered this house.

…and a chair in the middle

Once one of Christine's ardent admirers, in a drunken stupor, became jealous of his beloved, opened fire near Ward's house. Naturally, the police arrived and began to investigate the circumstances of the case. No one suspected that ordinary everyday life would result in a spy scandal. Kristin told everything that happened in this house, and named the names of her lovers. And the main thing was the recognition that she had passed secret information to a Russian agent. It is clear that after such confessions, not only the minister's head flew off, but the entire cabinet of ministers resigned.

After that, Christine immediately became famous. Famous photographer Lewis Morley made a provocative, at the time, photo shoot with Keeler. The provocation was that in the photo, in addition to the naked model and the chair that covered hercharms, there was nothing. The British appreciated the photographs and became interested in the chair, which strongly resembled the chair of the seventh series of designer furniture by the Danish architect. Since then, the hourglass chair has sold over five million pieces.

Swan song

Arne Jacobsen was a perfectionist by nature. He brought his designs to perfection. His most famous piece of furniture was the egg chair. Arne Jacobsen worked on it for several years. First, in his workshop, he sculpted a model of an armchair from clay, and only when the forms were brought to perfection, in 1959, the piece of furniture was put into production. An innovative idea here was the very approach to designing a chair for human anatomy and modern materials for its manufacture: a solid solid plastic frame, reinforced with fiberglass and covered with special furniture foam. The upholstery was of two types: leather and textile. The chair was created for the SAS Royal Hotel, where everything from the building to the doorknob was the design thought of the famous Danish architect.

The master died in 1971. The biography of Arne Jacobsen is rich in events: he did a lot, was famous, had many awards, but the main thing that he carried through his whole life was his love for art.