DANISH MODERN
Designmuseum Danmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
June 07, 2024 – On Going

Danish design is world-famous, but who were the great Danish designers of the 20th century and how did the Danish design adventure begin? Designmuseum Danmark unfolds the history of Danish design from the 1920s to the 1970s in a new, spectacular exhibition under the title DANISH MODERN. The new permanent exhibition shows some of the most iconic Danish design objects and shines a light on some of the clichés of “Danish Modern”.

What is special about a Børge Mogensen sofa, a Verner Panton lamp or a Hans J. Wegner chair? This is explored in the exhibition DANISH MODERN, which invites the audience on a design journey from furniture professor Kaare Klint’s “Room for a Woman”, over Finn Juhl’s organic and elegant furniture to Verner Panton and Nanna Ditzel’s avant-garde pop designs: In short, a fascinating journey through everything we now know as Danish design icons – mixed with unknown designs by well-known designers.

The foundation for Danish Modern was laid in 1949 at Copenhagen Carpenters’ Guild’s annual exhibition at Designmuseum Danmark – then the Museum of Decorative Art – an exhibition created in collaboration with a number of Danish furniture designers. American journalists visited the exhibition and wrote about the furniture and how Danish chairs combined beauty, comfort and minimalism as a result of the designers’ innovative methods and a Danish tradition of good craftsmanship. A series of traveling exhibitions in the USA and Canada in the 1950s and 60s initiated an enormous Scandinavian export of furniture and craftsmanship – the success and the Danish Modern brand was a reality.

In the new exhibition at Designmuseum Danmark, the audience moves from room to room through the immersive exhibition design, which stages the different eras and designers. At the center of the exhibition, the various designers in Danish design history are displayed, separated by walls in different shapes reminiscent of the backdrop in a theatre. Here, the audience can get close to the designers who designed Danish Modern through their personal belongings, drawings, and archive material. The exhibition also features a pop universe with a mirrored ceiling and red carpets dedicated to the playful and brightly colored pop designs of Nanna Ditzel and Verner Panton.

DANISH MODERN also brings back the popular “chair tunnel” in a new, larger version with 125 chairs – with highlights and unknown chairs – from floor to ceiling. It tells the story of how Danish furniture draws inspiration from historical types from other countries. The chair tunnel is like a family tree of chair “relationships” and includes chairs from both Danish and international designers – Hans J. Wegner, Arne Jacobsen, Nanna Ditzel, Cecilie Manz, Charles Eames, Marcel Breuer, and Jasper Morrison.

Experience designs by Rigmor Andersen, Mogens Koch, Ole Wanscher, Børge Mogensen, Lis Ahlman, Grethe Meyer, Kay Bojesen, Gertrud Vasegaard, Poul Kjærholm, Hans J. Wegner, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, Henning Koppel, Per Lütken, Axel Salto, Poul Henningsen, and many more.

more. www.designmuseum.dk