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Finn Juhl 1914–1989 A personal note by Trevor Dannatt I first met Finn Juhl in London and in 1947, at his invitation I went to Denmark and thereafter regularly. We enjoyed a continuing friendship founded, initially, on my side on respect for his work and his revelation of the qualities of the Danish/Scandinavian tradition plus his critical acumen (even if this was often sharply expressed; there was a bit of the enfant terrible about him). He was something of an anglophile, very well read in English literature and history.We shared a love of Mr Pickwick as well as the humour of Bertram Wooster.We did honour him in England with the award, eventually, of honorary Royal Designer for Industry, and he liked that, especially the Royal bit. Finn Juhl graduated in architecture at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen in 1934 and then worked for Vilhelm Lauritzen especially on the Radio House until, in 1945, he opened his own studio. At the same time he became Principal of the Frederiksberg School of Interior Design.At home his furniture was at first critically received, for it questioned the tradition of Klint, the rational productions of Fritz Hansen’s factory as well as the ‘craft’ school, but it soon gained international acclaim, being thoroughly modern in its structural clarity and articulation of the main elements and also appealing in its sensuous sculptural qualities and cultural resonances. His Bing and Grøndahl showroom, 1947, at once showed a new voice in a clear and well organised response to needs, plus an acute feeling for space and colour, as well as general and detail furbishment, creating a serene ambience characteristic of all his subsequent interiors: for example the notable Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations, various SAS offices, the Danish Embassy in Washington, many private interiors and numerous exhibitions worldwide His few houses are in a relaxed mode and I see in them something original, very much ignored by architectural critics or historians. It is difficult to find precedent for what he did. Perhaps Danish vernacular building, which his underlying sensibility appreciated as much as it was engaged with the classical, or with such buildings as his much loved Liselund, a delightful blend of the vernacular and neo-classic in south east Denmark. (Møn). His own house in Charlottenlund, was a place of magic. I admired the spatial organisation, the relaxed mode of building. It was immensely sympathetic with a quiet poetry of space, light and colour, a total artwork. These were private buildings, not public ones, and occasion now demands a statement and architecture becomes more expressive, sensational, theatrical and at the extreme puts form before content.To speculate, had we been fortunate enough to have had, say, an art gallery by Juhl, I am sure his priority would have been the subject not the object and he would have discovered a form from within not imposed an image from without.An analogy might be the very sympathetic Kröller-Müller Museum in Holland by Van de Velde as opposed to Bilbao, which is to be admired more as an urban pivot than a gallery. He was a linguist with a wide cultural awareness, much engaged with Greece and Italy, yet loving the artistic riches of his own country, in context and as part of a fine tradition. Pictorial and sculptural experiences enriched and stimulated his work which followed a strong personal direction. Imitators, alas, abounded and then other lines prevailed for he never really engaged in ‘the Market’ and remained a singular artist of exceptional sensibility. His classic works are mainly of the period 1945–1965 and in a country where architects are especially honoured he will enter their pantheon, and also survive wherever visual imagination and quality are valued. Based on various texts, 1989, 2004.

This text appeared in Trevor Dannatt Works and Words Black Dog 2008 and is posted by the author Trevor Dannatt with publishers permission