BOOK FORMAT Hardcover, 9.5 x 11.75 in. / 256 pgs / 300 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 9/30/2014 Active
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2014 p. 61
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9783775738095TRADE List Price: $75.00 CDN $99.00
AVAILABILITY In stock
"The chair does not exist," a philosophical Wegner once said, channeling Plato's musings on the ideal "Form of Chair" versus the imperfect "imitations" upon which we all sit. "The good chair is a task one is never completely done with." As famous contemporary designers like Jasper Morrison, Naoto Fukasawa, Tadeo Ando, and Konstantin Grcic cite Wegner for inspiration, and his designs are still strikingly modern and coveted after decades, it looks like the world won't be done with Wegner's good chairs anytime soon.
An elegant, linen-bound overview of midcentury Danish modernist Hans J. Wegner’s unrivalled chairs, still strikingly modern and coveted after decades
The name of Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007) is inseparable from his unrivalled chairs, which have helped Danish design achieve international recognition. Any fan of design has his or her favorite among Wegner's approximately 500 creations, and there is hardly an interior design magazine that has not included an illustration of his elegant China Chair (1943) or Y Chair (1950). Even John F. Kennedy sat on the Round Chair, now known simply as The Chair (1949). Trained as a furniture maker, Wegner typically made his prototypes by hand, using traditional joinery techniques such as tongue-and-groove or finger joints. In the process, he often pushed the limitations of wood, giving his designs an unequaled elegance. Their beauty was matched by their practicality: he considered comfort and ergonomics to be equally as important as appearance. Despite his concern for functionality, his personality and sense of humor also shone through his works, as evidenced by his splendid Peacock Chair (1947) or the masculine Ox Chair (1960), available with or without horns.
The Wishbone Chair CH24 (1959) is reproduced from Hans J. Wegner: Just One Good Chair.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Fast Company
Carey Dunne
a testament to how design can reinterpret a single object in near infinite ways.
New York Magazine
The Editors
Danish Designer Hans J. Wegner created the Y chair, the China chair, the Peacock chair, the Ox chair-even a chair called the Chair.
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Just One Good Chair, Hatje Cantz's stellar monograph on Hans J. Wegner, undisputed master of Danish chair design, begins with this 1952 statement by Wegner: "If only you could design just one good chair in your life… But you simply cannot." Over the course of the next 250 oversized, heavily illustrated pages, the reader is treated to more than 500 designs, each more refined and lighthearted than the next. The look of the book is sophisticated and clean; the writing, by Designmuseum Danmark's Christian Holmsted Olesen, is alive. "All that talk about 'the chair'—it's nonsense," Olesen quotes Wegner from 1992. "Because the chair isn't there. I have the feeling that the more I work on it, the more it keeps moving farther and farther away. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. You can't make something definitive. Only people who don't understand what it's all about say so. I still think it can be done better—maybe with just four equal sticks." See more books from our 2015 Holiday Gift Guide. >> continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9.5 x 11.75 in. / 256 pgs / 300 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $75.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $99 ISBN: 9783775738095 PUBLISHER: Hatje Cantz AVAILABLE: 9/30/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Christian Holmsted Olesen.
An elegant, linen-bound overview of midcentury Danish modernist Hans J. Wegner’s unrivalled chairs, still strikingly modern and coveted after decades
The name of Hans J. Wegner (1914-2007) is inseparable from his unrivalled chairs, which have helped Danish design achieve international recognition. Any fan of design has his or her favorite among Wegner's approximately 500 creations, and there is hardly an interior design magazine that has not included an illustration of his elegant China Chair (1943) or Y Chair (1950). Even John F. Kennedy sat on the Round Chair, now known simply as The Chair (1949). Trained as a furniture maker, Wegner typically made his prototypes by hand, using traditional joinery techniques such as tongue-and-groove or finger joints. In the process, he often pushed the limitations of wood, giving his designs an unequaled elegance. Their beauty was matched by their practicality: he considered comfort and ergonomics to be equally as important as appearance. Despite his concern for functionality, his personality and sense of humor also shone through his works, as evidenced by his splendid Peacock Chair (1947) or the masculine Ox Chair (1960), available with or without horns.
