Phillips in conversation with Christian Holmsted Olesen, Head of Exhibitions and Collections at the Design Museum Denmark
The present lot is a rare example of the early work by pioneering Danish architect and designer Finn Juhl. Only two of these coffee tables with an integrated planter are known to have been made. One of them was part of the designer's home, as shown by an early photograph of the piece in his house and a 1941 floor plan by the designer himself. Phillips' Regional Director for Scandinavia, Kirsten MacDonald, spoke with Design Historian Christian Holmsted Olesen, to get his insights on this remarkable piece of Danish design history.
An Early Pioneering Form
Phillips: How does this coffee table exemplify Finn Juhl's early work and experimentation in furniture making?
Christian: It is relevant here to understand that Finn Juhl wanted to be an Art Historian, but his merchant father thought that he could not make a living from that profession. The compromise was that he could become an architect instead. Despite this, Juhl remained very interested in contemporary art and artists such as Henry Moore, Jean Arp, Barbara Hepworth as well as Erik Thommesen sculptures and Vilhelm Lundstrøm paintings in Denmark. He assiduously followed the modern styles of international architecture: the Bauhaus school, De Stijl in Holland and Russian constructivism from an early age. Proponents of these styles were themselves very influenced by contemporary art. These influences are visible in some of Juhl’s early drawings from architecture school. It is worth noting that this table is a piece that predates the period when Finn Juhl became the renowned Finn Juhl. The first phase in his oeuvre is from around 1940 when he made large, animal-like forms, upholstered furniture that some say looked a bit like a walrus. But this table is different.
Phillips: How do you think he reached the striking shape we can see here?
Christian: It is interesting to first consider Finn Juhl’s ‘Grasshopper’ chair. That design is a construction, for which he was partly influenced by ancient Egyptian furniture as well as Marcel Breuer and Gerrit Rietveld designs. It goes beyond organic design. Juhl was not yet as advanced in the process of construction: it is not very durable and was very challenging for his cabinetmaker. Moving on to this coffee table, it also differs from his organic period, because it is more angled, but it is still strongly influenced by art. It is asymmetrical and its form defies explanation.
"This remarkable table embodies Finn Juhl’s search for his very own design language and reveals his interest in the contemporary international styles"
What was happening internationally in Europe was very different from what was happening in Denmark in that period. Most of the Danish architects and cabinetmakers were strongly influenced by Kaare Klint and his school. They looked to the past, studying British 18th century furniture and Chinese furniture, and took a very functionalist and rational approach to design.
Phillips: So, Finn Juhl really stood out in the design landscape of his time?
Christian: He stood out and was extremely defiant. You can also tell that, in his early years, he had not yet had much practice in furniture making but rather had learnt a lot about art from books. It is very interesting to see how at the time this coffee table was made, he was exploring what his style, art and expression could be.
Phillips: Might we say that this is as much a piece of art than it is a piece of furniture?
Christian: I would say so, yes. We can say that about most of Finn Juhl’s furniture, but here it is particularly evident.
A Unique Cabinetmaking Collaboration
Phillips:Finn Juhl worked with master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder with whom he established a long standing and prolific partnership in the late 1930s. How would this collaboration have played out for this table?
Christian: Finn Juhl was not trained as a cabinetmaker, so he was very lucky to meet Niels Vodder. Most Danish architects like Hans Wegner and Børge Mogensen had been educated as cabinetmakers themselves and knew about what was feasible and was not. They knew what traditional joints looked like, what was strong and what was less so. Finn Juhl seemed to focus less on those aspects and was more interested in the artistic approach. He strove to find new solutions to furniture making problems and made a lot of compromises. At some of the Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibitions, cabinetmakers and architects would go to Niels Vodder’s stand and laugh in amazement at Niels Vodder’s outlandish creations with thin constructions and joints. They were breaking the cabinetmaking rules.
"Most of the cabinetmakers would have said no to Finn Juhl’s ideas, but Niels Vodder understood his artistic talent."
Detail and the Individuality
Phillips: The integrated flower holder is a playful and unusual detail. Can you suggest where the idea for this detail might have come from, and whether similar features exist in other of his works?
Christian: Finn Juhl used this typically modernist feature several times in his table designs. He also sometimes integrated a brass hot plate. He was very conscious about modernism from an early age, which was rare for a Dane because most Danes didn’t yet grasp what was happening internationally, but Finn Juhl had been reading about it and closely following its output.
Phillips: The rarity of this table and the presence of the model in the designer’s house suggest a truly personal nature behind this specific design project. Can you talk about how Finn Juhl’s individuality comes across in this table?
Christian: It certainly shows his individuality because it is so different from everything else that was being made in Denmark at the time. It is noteworthy that the model is seen in his home, which corresponds to the fact that he wished to live with his own pieces of furniture. Finn Juhl’s house was built in 1942 and was a type of laboratory where he could experiment with his furniture and see how it felt to live with it.
Phillips: What are your impressions about this piece, apart from it being ‘Finn Juhl before Finn Juhl’?
Christian: It is a very interesting work because Finn Juhl is an important designer who holds a significant place in furniture history. It is fascinating to see how he was already trying to produce pieces at such a young age. The almost unfinished nature of the design suggests that there is much more to come from him which of course we now know to be true. This coffee table is asymmetrical, and he broke with traditional forms. The table is a testament to the development process of his furniture, leading to the harmony of his later works, and that’s what makes it special. The investigative nature of the piece shows that trialling was very much a part of the design process, especially at the beginning. Arne Jacobsen also tried several different design avenues, all designers did. Some destroyed the early pieces they weren’t satisfied with, but Finn Juhl did not.
Phillips: It’s fascinating to find an object that is documented in a personal period image next to the designer sitting in one of his historic chairs. This coffee table might be a more experimental work, but it has a great historical importance.
Christian: It certainly has. There are very few artists who only made masterpieces. My reading of this coffee table is that Finn Juhl was in his early days, building experience. He knew that he wanted to carve a different path than the rest of the Danish cabinetmakers. We can already see that he has an international outlook and imagine that he would later become friends with some of the influential figures at MoMA. In the books by Grete Jalk, which document the cabinetmaker exhibitions, we can see the various experimentations in design by architects of 30s and 40s and 50s, and most of them did not become world-famous.
Phillips: Finally, if we consider Danish culture and Jantelov – an underlying Scandinavian philosophy principle that dictates emphasis on collective accomplishments and well-being, and disdains focus on individual achievements – he must have been bold to break through that mould and ambitious to change the mindset of the Danish way of thinking of how you decorate a home?
Christian: I think that must have been part of his character; he often had to stand up for himself and be very tough. His mother died shortly after he was born, and he had to live with his father who was very strict, commercially minded and did not understand any of his interests into art. He had to fight to do what he wanted to do. He also had to assert himself among other architects and cabinetmakers, because he wanted to pursue a design language which was different from that of the Danish school. He later made friends with Edgar Kaufmann as well as others from the U.S and became part of the American avantgarde or high society. So, he was very different from the beginning and used to living a different lifestyle. That is perhaps why it was easier for him to be an outsider, because he has experienced that feeling from the outset. He was a good architect and the few buildings he built were rather interesting including his own, underestimated, very modern house from 1942. It was one of the first villas in Denmark with an open plan construction where you see directly from the dining room into the living room. It was built ten years later than what was happening in Germany, but for Denmark it was very early. He never finished his architecture studies because he started working for Vilhelm Lauritzen furniture so you can say that as a furniture designer he really was self-made.
Provenance
Private collection, Denmark
Literature
Per H. Hansen, Finn Juhl and His House, Berlin, 2014, pp. 176, 182 Anne-Louise Sommer, Watercolours by Finn Juhl, Berlin, 2016, p. 9 Christian Bundegaard, Finn Juhl: Life, Work, World, London, 2019, pp. 40-41
circa 1941 Walnut-veneered wood, ash, walnut, painted steel, aluminium. 41.4 x 123.4 x 61.8 cm (16 1/4 x 48 5/8 x 24 3/8 in.) Executed by master cabinetmaker Niels Vodder, Denmark.