Poul Kjærholm: Timeless Minimalism presents the private chair collection of Japanese connoisseur Noritsugu Oda as a lens through which to trace the full arc of Kjærholm's singular career in hard-material Scandinavian furniture design.
About This Book
Where most mid-century Scandinavian furniture sought warmth through timber, Poul Kjærholm (1929–1980) pursued an opposing discipline — one of steel, stone, and exacting geometric form. This volume documents some fifty masterpieces drawn from the collection of Noritsugu Oda, a Japanese specialist in chairs whose holdings speak to the particular resonance Kjærholm's work has found in Japan, partly through its affinities with Japanese architectural sensibility. Design drawings and archival photographs accompany the objects, mapping Kjærholm's development from his early years under Hans J. Wegner through to his death at fifty-one. For students of Scandinavian design and modernist furniture, this is a rare primary document.
Key Features
- 208 pages of studio photography, archival photographs, and original design drawings
- Collection curated by Noritsugu Oda, a specialist Japanese chair collector
- Approximately fifty furniture masterpieces documented across Kjærholm's career
- Published by Seigensha, 1980
What You'll Discover
- How Kjærholm's disciplined use of hard materials — stone and metal — set his work apart from the dominant wood-and-warmth tradition of mid-century Scandinavian design
- The formal and philosophical connections between Kjærholm's furniture and Japanese architectural aesthetics, as evidenced by the depth of Japanese collector interest
- The trajectory of Kjærholm's development from student under Hans J. Wegner to an independent and internationally significant voice in modernist furniture
- Original design drawings alongside finished objects, revealing the precision of Kjærholm's design process and the relationship between intention and material outcome
About the Author
[Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 208
- Dimensions: 29.6 x 22.4 x 1.8 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9784861529610
- Publisher: Seigensha
- Publication Date: 1980
Perfect For: Furniture designers, Scandinavian design researchers, modernist design collectors, and anyone tracing the influence of mid-century European minimalism on Japanese design culture.