Hans J. Wegner

Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007)

Essential to assisting the international popularity of mid-century Danish design, Hans Jørgensen Wegner was born in southern Denmark in 1914. Skilled as an apprentice Cabinet Maker, Wegner attended the modernist influenced Danish School of Arts and Crafts and Architectural Academy in Copenhagen.

Hans Jørgensen Wegner’s style and vision is often described as Organic Functionality, a modernist approach with emphasis on functionality. The Dane’s legacy is celebrated for his landmark approach to designing chairs, experimenting with minimalist shapes and overlapping frames. In his own words, Wegner enjoyed ‘stripping the old chairs of their outer style and letting them appear in their pure construction.’

Wegner received several major design prizes for his work, from the Lunning Prize in 1951 and the coveted Grand Prix of the Milan Triennale in the same year, to the Prince Eugen Medal in Sweden and the Danish Eckersberg medal. In 1959, he was impressively made honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts in London, whilst his work exhibits within MoMA in New York and the Die Neue Samlung in Munich.