: Starting on September 25, collector and interior designer Vance
Trimble will present a selection from his collection of Danish
modern master furniture at the galleries of fine art dealers
Dickinson. The exhibition will focus on the career of master
furniture designer Ole Wanscher.
Wanscher, almost unknown in the United States, has long been
considered a master furniture designer in his native Denmark.
Over the last few years, a handful of American collectors and
dealers have discovered his work. This exhibition, on view
through October 10, will present many of his masterworks to the
American viewer for the first time.
Wanscher, 1903-1985, studied under Professor Kaare Klint (the
father of Danish modern furniture design). In 1929 he marked the
beginning of a long career as professional writer (The History
of the Art of Furniture, 1946, and Five Thousand Years of
Furniture, 1966) a professor (Royal Danish Academy Fine Arts
1955-73, a member of the Fellows of the Royal Academy 1963-68 and
of the Academy 1968) and, most important, as one of Denmark's
greatest furniture designers.
Wanscher showed his work beginning in 1933 at the annual
Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibitions. They had begun in
1927 and became a laboratory for cooperation between master
cabinetmakers and master furniture designers. His collaboration
with master cabinetmakers included Rud Rasmussen, Jacob Kjaer an
most significantly, A.J. Iversen. His designs were exhibited and
highly praised for three decades until the Guild Exhibitions
ended in 1966.
Included in this exhibition is a mahogany armchair with horsehair
upholstery that was first shown at the annual Copenhagen
Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition of 1961. This chair is
exceptional for its sculpted, lightweight and minimal wooden
frame.
The exhibition will include a wide range of Wanscher's furniture,
including a number of rare and iconic chairs, desks and furniture
for storage by the most important master cabinetmaker of the era,
A.J. Iverson. Also included in the exhibition will be a selection
of works by other Danish modern masters, including Poul
Kjaerholm, Finn Juhl, Arne Jacobsen, Poul Henningsen and Kaare
Klint.
Dickinson is at 19 East 66th Street. For information,
212-674-9334 or olewanscher.com.
