FINN JUHL AND HIS DOG BONNIE OUTSIDE HIS HOME IN ORDRUP, DENMARK. HE BUILT THE HOUSE HIMSELF IN 1942. THE HOUSE CONSISTS OF TWO OFFSET, PARALLEL BUILDINGS CONNECTED BY A LOWER BUILDING. THE LIGHT, SIMPLE, CLEAR-CUT FORMS WITH WHITE PLASTER CLADDING LOOK CALMING AGAINST THE DARK WOODLAND BACKGROUND. IN FINN JUHL: LIFE, WORK, WORLD, AUTHOR CHRISTIAN BUNDEGAARD DESCRIBES IT AS COMBINING JAZZ RHYTHMS WITH A TEMPLE-LIKE STATURE.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ROYAL DANISH LIBRARY
THE CHIEFTAIN CHAIR/FJ49A, 1949, NIELS VODDER; MANUFACTURED BY HOUSE OF FINN JUHL SINCE 2002. TODAY, IT IS CONSIDERED A CENTRAL COMPONENT OF THE DANISH MODERN MOVEMENT IN THE U.S. DURING THE 1950s. FOR THIS REASON, FINN JUHL IS OFTEN CONSIDERED THE FATHER OF DANISH MODERN DESIGN.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KLASSIK
Gracefully simple, elegantly executed and timelessly appealing, Danish Modern design is recognized for all these powerfully distilled design elements. And there’s no Danish Modern designer more recognizable, or perhaps more instrumental in propelling the look into the modernist mainstream, than Finn Juhl. In Finn Juhl: Life, Work, World, Phaidon and author Christian Bundegaard offer the first ever comprehensive profile of this Danish master.