Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007)

GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Hans J. Wegner was a Danish furniture designer best known for his functional yet elegant chairs. Wegner was trained as a cabinetmaker before attending the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts from which he graduated in 1938. His international breakthrough came in 1949 with the Round Chair, which soon became a classic and appeared eleven years later in televised presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. For over forty years he worked in collaboration with one of the finest cabinetmakers in Denmark, Johannes Hansen. He was named Royal Designer of Industry in 1959 by the Royal Society of Arts in London, among numerous other honors.  Wegner's chairs helped change the course of design history in the 1950s and 60s by sanding modernism's sharp edges and "giving aesthetes a comfortable seat."

Drawn from
David Colman, "Hans Wegner Dies at 92; Danish Furniture Designer," The New York Times, February 6, 2007, Accessed online April 21, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/arts/design/06wegner.html.

NOTES

ASSOCIATED CONTENT CHUNKS (list applicable note links)

AUDIO ASSETS 

VIDEO ASSETS  

IMAGE ASSETS 

WEB RESOURCES 

ARCHIVAL RESOURCES (digitized/non-digitized)

FUN FACTS 

TEACHING IDEAS 

RULES
set operator as OR
apply to objects where constituent_id equals 167
apply to constituents where id equals 167

rules_operator
OR
General Description
Hans J. Wegner was a Danish furniture designer best known for his functional yet elegant chairs. Wegner was trained as a cabinetmaker before attending the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts from which he graduated in 1938. His international breakthrough came in 1949 with the Round Chair, which soon became a classic and appeared eleven years later in televised presidential debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. For over forty years he worked in collaboration with one of the finest cabinetmakers in Denmark, Johannes Hansen. He was named Royal Designer of Industry in 1959 by the Royal Society of Arts in London, among numerous other honors.  Wegner's chairs helped change the course of design history in the 1950s and 60s by sanding modernism's sharp edges and "giving aesthetes a comfortable seat."

Drawn from
David Colman, "Hans Wegner Dies at 92; Danish Furniture Designer," The New York Times, February 6, 2007, Accessed online April 21, 2016, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/arts/design/06wegner.html.

Fun Facts
 
Archival Resources
(digitized/non-digitized)
Web Resources
 

Notes

rules
Apply To
Constituents
id
Equals
167
tags
#draft
#completed
%copyedited_Gail
@Bowling
*Decorative Arts and Design
furniture: AAT: 300037680
chairs (furniture): AAT: 300037772
designers: AAT: 300025190
furniture designers: AAT: 300386292
Wegner_Hans J: ULAN: 500004003
Danish (culture or style): AAT: 300111172
Copenhagen: TGN: 7003474
source file
artists_and_designers-0064.xml.nores