THE PELICAN
13Pages

THE PELICAN ARTWORK EDITION / FINN JUHL ASGER JORN COLLABORATION / ONECOLLECTION DOMICILECULTURE

Artwork Edition The Pelican meets Macbeth Finn Juhl Finn Juhl is often considered the father figure of Danish Design, although the idea was far removed from his personality. Finn Juhl followed what was closest to his heart – the modern free art. With an artistic approach to functional design, he created a brand new idiom in the last mid-century, which today is clearing the way for new designers. Finn Juhl’s furniture is the centre of a modern revival. His Chieftain Chair, the Egyptian Chair, the Poet Sofa, the Pelican Chair and many other original pieces of furniture are exhibited in...

Artwork Edition Artwork Edition The Jorn Museum in Silkeborg is home to the world’s largest collection of Jorn’s work. Museum director Jacob Thage is excited about the new Jorn/Juhl collaboration. ”It is a fact that Juhl and Jorn knew each other and without doubt also inspired each other. Finn Juhl had paintings by Jorn in his home, and when Jorn exhibited on a small island in a lake in the Dyrehaven Park in 1942, he asked Juhl to design a bridge and organize the gigantic marquee, which was a sign of huge respect for his work,” Jacob Thage explains. The new fabric is produced from 79%...

Artwork Edition Artwork Edition The Pelican t a k e s o ff Onecollection was taking a big risk when it re-launched the Pelican Chair in 2001, but it paid off, and the chair made an elegant comeback. When the generously padded armchair The Pelican was launched in 1940, nothing indicated that the chair would later become one of Finn Juhl’s most iconic and best selling designs. Today, the Pelican Chair is seen as one of Finn Juhl’s most iconic designs and at the same time the most popular model in the House of Finn Juhl portfolio, selling handsomely in more than 30 countries. In fact, the...

Artwork Edition / Artwork Edition Finn Juhl’s beautiful hand drawing for cabinetmaker Niels Vodder’s stand at the Guild Exhibition in 1940. It is clear that Finn Juhl’s knowledge about furniture construction was particularly inadequate, at least at the beginning of his career. His drawing for the Pelican chair was more like a conceptional idea. In the 1940s, upholstered chairs were terrible monstrosities. Finn Juhl the functionalist set out to change that. Finn Juhl’s talent for creating furniture with a sculptural quality was and still is unique in Danish design history, but his main focus...

Artwork Edition Artwork Edition One cannot create happiness with beautiful objects, but one can spoil quite a lot of happiness with bad ones Finn Juhl

Artwork Edition Artwork Edition The Pelican and Craftsmanship Today’s Pelican is a great example of how modern technology and traditional craftsmanship can go hand in hand. Most Danish furniture designers in the 1940s were trained cabinetmakers and had a solid knowledge of materials and techniques. Finn Juhl had none of that. He had trained as an architect at the Royal Danish Academy of Art and throughout his life called himself an “amateur” furniture designer. The making of the chairs had also been an unconventional process: Juhl had just presented his cabinetmaker with a simple sketch and...

Artwork Edition Artwork Edition TE X TILE P RO J ECT – DOMICILECULTURE Art and handwriting are the same. An image is written and handwriting is images. There is handwriting, a graphic element, in every image just as there is an image in every piece of handwriting. The border between art and handwriting is blurred in origin. Everything is a symbol of something. Asger Jorn “The Prophetic Harps,” 1944 With colourful works full of fantasy, Asger Jorn (1914-1973) was a source of inspiration in his time, but also a challenge. Play and spontaneity were indicative of Jorn’s working method. groups,...

The organic shape of the Pelican is strongly influenced by Finn Juhl's passion for modern art, an interest he had even before he started to study architecture. As a young boy, Juhl wanted to study art but his businessman father would have none of that. He argued that the young Finn should have a practical education so he could earn money and be able to provide for himself and a family. Architecture was therefore the result of a compromise and Juhl had ulterior motives: the architecture school was part of the Royal Academy of Art, and once he was an accredited student, he would be able to...

Artwork Edition Artwork Edition Chairs are like beds – they are made to move in. That is why chairs, which only allow one position, are wrong. Finn Juhl

Artwork Edition The Pelican and its Time The Pelican was an experiment aimed at combining functionalism and modern art, but criticism was tough. At the Cabinetmaker’s Guild Exhibition in 1940 Finn Juhl showed his Pelican Chair, which received a lot of attention for it’s provocative organic shapes and relatively slim upholstery. The chair was exhibited together with a big wooden sculpture by the Icelandic artist Sigurjòn Òlufssòn, who joined a group of artists together with Asger Jorn. It’s amorphous shapes underlimed Finn Juh’s inspiration from the modern free art with roots in cubism and...

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