User:Professor Arkitekt Jørgen Kastholm

Biography

Professor.Arkitekt. Jørgen kastholm. 1931 – 2007 When Professor.Arkitekt. Jørgen kastholm. Passed away in 2007 we lost one of the most influential furniture designers of the 20th century. Jørgen Kastholm was one of the last Danish designers associated with the golden era of post war Danish Modernism that rose to world fame, and in many ways he was also among one of the few that was able to maintain and sustain his importance in the world of furniture design from the early 1960s up until today.

Kastholm was originally trained as a blacksmith and for some time worked for his father´s company. The knowledge he acquired proved later to endow him with anintuitive understanding of the possibilities of steel and metal, That would assist him in most of his work. He did however luckily decide to educate himself as a furniture designer and architect. In 1958 he designed his first pieces for Ivan Schlecter and the company Bo-Ex, meanwhile he also worked for Fritz Hansen and here among other things assisted Arne Jacobsen in developing the egg-chair. It was however his partnership with the designer Preben Fabricius that would propel him to international fame. Preben Fabricius first training had been as a cabinetmaker and the collaboration between the “blacksmith”and the “cabinetmaker” turned out to be extremely fertile. Their first real success came with the presentation of the “Scimiter” chair in 1963. As the chair made its name around the world, eyes opened for their potential. In 1965 the big German furniture company Alfred Kill AG contacted the two designers, and when they presented their new collection for Kill at the Cologne furniture fair in 1966, it meant instant world fame. Separate exhibitions in New York, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and other places followed.Still they continued to design for other companies including Ivan Schlechter and Bo-ex in Denmark, but the immense international success of the furniture designed for Kill meant that Jørgen Kastholm turned his focus more and more towards Germany and the big international market. Around 1968 their partnership ended. Jørgen Kastholm continued to work in Germany and in 1971 he moved to Düsseldorf where he has lived up until now.

In 1975 he was appointed Professor at the University of Wuppertal Today his name is well known in Denmark, but in Germany and the rest of the world he is celebrity. His work can be found everywhere, and he was commissioned for a vast amount of projects including the furnishing of the Bundestag (the German Parliament) in Bonn. Jørgen Kastholm managed to design furniture for companies and projects around the globe. The commercial success of his designs is probably bigger than that of any other Danish furniture designer. He has also received as many honours and awards as any designer can hope to attain just as his work is represented in museums worldwide.