Six Scandinavian Design Masters

A selection of furniture, objects, textiles, lamps and graphics from six Scandinavian designers make up Six Scandinavian Design Masters, the new exhibition at Centro Cultural La Moneda’s Design Gallery. The curatorship, leaded by Hernán Garfias, emphasizes on clean, democratic and practical lines, which are characteristic in the ways of life in Nordic countries, which invite us to deliberate about what kind of society we want to build in Chile at the present time.

Chairs, lamps, armchairs and stools are some of the design pieces that can be found in the Six Scandinavian Design Masters exhibition, in Centro Cultural La Moneda’s Design Gallery. The artworks, selected by designer Hernán Garfias, account for the culture and lifestyles of Scandinavian countries, in which a modern life has been established, attentive to their own traditions.

This exhibition’s furniture, objects, textiles, lamps and graphics reflect the various influences of Scandinavian design, which blend Bauhaus’ functionality, coldness and purity of shape, the relationship to Nordic nature, the way of life in indoor spaces, Scandinavian culture, and colour as lighting and play, among others

By selecting iconic objects of Scandinavian design, the exhibition Six Scandinavian Design Masters, proposes an approach to Northern Europe’s ways of living. The pieces give an account of a society that is connected to the stunning landscapes that surround it; its forests, lakes and mountains; ice; and the deep blue sky, with the fortune of being able to visualize the northern lights, a phenomena which takes place during certain seasons. These works are pure, clean and conceived for a democratic use, and have gone beyond their own boundaries and have become icons of global design.

“These are countries that have a nature of existing in a simple way, where design and architecture are an essential part of their inhabitants’ daily life. We selected renowned masters of design to portray the Scandinavian ways of life to the visitors of this Cultural Centre, through furniture, objects, textiles, lamps and graphics, in clean, pure, democratic and functional forms”, Hernán Garfias, the exhibition’s curator, explains.

The collected pieces correspond to works by the Finns Alvar and Aino Aalto, Maija Isola and Eero Aarnio, and the Danes Hans Wegner, Verner Panton and Arne Jacobsen. Private collectors and the companies: Interdesign, Acero Vitra, Artek, Olika and Fernando Mayer companies facilitated them for the Six Scandinavian Design Masters exhibition.

“The works presented in Six Scandinavian Design Masters invite us to discover Nordic culture and the lifestyles of countries whose educational and labour proposals have been closely watched by Chile, which have succeeded on building an equitable system, and that respond to the appreciation of every human being, beyond their origins, income levels, or others. This matter has also had a positive impact on freedom and happiness indicators. At times like these, we think that relieving Scandinavian culture from its design can shed a light on possible paths”, claims Beatriz Bustos Oyanedel, Director of Centro Cultural La Moneda.

Six Scandinavian Masters

• Alvar Aalto (1898, Kuortane, Finland – 1976, Helsinski, Finland) is considered as one of the most important architects of the first half of the 20th century, together with Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright. The Viipuri Library, Paimio hospital, and Mairea Villa buildings are examples of the International Style, which brought many European and American artists together. Every object and piece of furniture in the Hospital and the Mairea Villa was specially designed. Afterwards, he designed his Paimio armchair made out of bentwood; the Model 98 tea trolley; the famous 60 stool, which added a back to its chair version; the 100 screen, a room divider made of wood slats; the model 400 armchair; the white and gold pendant lamps; and the Savoy crystal glasses in a variety of colours, which had Finland’s lakes and ices drawn on them, designed together with his wife Aino.

• Arne Jacobsen (1902, Copenhagen, Denmark – 1971, Copenhagen, Denmark). His most important projects were the SAS Hotel in Copenhagen (now Radisson), where he designed each of the pieces added to the building, such as the doors, knockers, lighting fixtures, furniture, carpets, objects and graphics, inventing his own typography; then the Swan and Egg armchairs; the Bellevue lamp; and the Mayor sofa. Other important works were the Bellavista housing estate at Klampenborg; the Aarhus Town Hall, designed jointly with Erik Moller; the Stelling House, with curved lines; and the Embassy of Denmark in London. Furniture pieces for Fritz Hansen, such as the Ante chair, the Ant and Drop chairs, as well as the 3300 Series armchair, are still a huge commercial success.

• Hans Wegner (1914, Copenhagen, Denmark – 2007, Copenhagen, Denmark) is recognized as the great wood chair designer. His most famous chair is the Wishbone “Y” for Carl Hansen, with its well-known wishbone backrest. The CH28 Model armchair, CH88 and CH33 chairs, the 3-Benet Skalstol armchair with three legs, and the 512 Model armchair, also stand out. Their high quality and reflexive development enabled his designs to be manufactured up to this day, due to their timelessness since; he never reacted to a passing trend. He designed over 500 models, and many of them have become cult prototypes among interior design enthusiasts. His training as an architect and carpenter allowed him to successfully bring together classicism and avant-garde, with pure and simple lines.

• Verner Panton, (1926, Gramtofte, Denmark – 1998, Copenhagen, Denmark) was an industrial designer and architect that deeply influenced the 60’s with his futuristic style and his furniture of bright colours, built on glass fibre, plastic and fabric, which marked an entire generation. The Panton chair is an icon in the history of global design. Initially made from glass fibre, the new technologies allowed it to be manufactured in Vitra plastic later on. Its curve and contour make it a sculpture worth watching. The Vitra armchair line in red fabric will be a turning point in history, as well as the K3 Heart Cone chair, and the Amoebe and C1 chairs. The Flowerpot lamps for &tradition, manufactured in 1959, are another noteworthy example of his style, which comes close to Pop Art.

• Maija Isola (1927, Riihimäki, Finland – 2001, Riihimäki, Finland) was a printed textiles designer who created over 500 patterns, among which her famous Unikko stands out, which repeated the patterns of poppy flowers, typical of Finland. Its colours changed from shades of red to black, with blue, orange, yellow, green and grey variations. All colour combinations produced a desire to buy them, which gave great commercial success to Marimekko, the firm she created in 1960, which currently, her daughter continues developing with a great variety of patterns and designs, that expanded to tea and coffee sets, trays, and silverware. Maybe she anticipated Finland’s spirit, which nowadays is considered as the happiest country of the world, with one of the highest per capita incomes, and an almost perfect educational system.

• Eero Aarnio (1932, Helsinski, Finland) is a Finnish designer and the only one still alive among this selection of Scandinavian masters. His furniture has extensively used plastic, in the same way as Danish Panton. In the 60’s, he created his famous hanging sphere called Ball Chair, a chair that hung from the ceiling that allowed being isolated from the interior space. Another very famous chair was the apple-green Pastilla: a beautiful sculpture made in glass fibre; and the Tomato Chair, with a monumental shape in bright red colour. His childish spirit can be appreciated in this exhibition, through his iconic designs for children, such as the Trioli, that can be both a chair and a rocker; the Puppy stool, a real pet; and the Happy Bird stool, another endearing furniture for playing, all manufactured by Magis in coloured plastic.