Danish Design in Postwar America: A Book Talk with Maggie Taft

Cost:

Nordic Northwest Members: $5

General Admission: $10

Arts For All: $5

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Join us online to hear from writer and art historian, Maggie Taft, about her new book, The Chieftain and the Chair: The Rise of Danish Design in Postwar America. There will be a Q&A after the lecture.

Today, Danish Modern design is synonymous with clean, midcentury cool. During the 1950s and ’60s, it flourished as the furniture choice for Americans who hoped to signal they were current and chic. But how did this happen? How did Danish Modern become the design movement of the times? In The Chieftain and the Chair, Maggie Taft tells the tale of our love affair with Danish Modern design. Structured as a biography of two iconic chairs—Finn Juhl’s Chieftain Chair and Hans Wegner’s Round Chair, both designed and first fabricated in 1949—this book follows the chairs from conception and fabrication through marketing, distribution, and use. Drawing on research in public and private archives, Taft considers how political, economic, and cultural forces in interwar Denmark laid the foundations for the postwar furniture industry, and she tracks the deliberate maneuvering on the part of Danish creatives and manufacturers to cater to an American market. Taft also reveals how American tastemakers and industrialists were eager to harness Danish design to serve American interests and how furniture manufacturers around the world were quick to capitalize on the fad by flooding the market with copies. Sleek and minimalist, Danish Modern has experienced a resurgence of popularity in the last few decades and remains a sought-after design. This accessible and engaging history offers a unique look at its enduring rise among tastemakers.

About Maggie Taft:

Maggie Taft, PhD is Founding Director of Writing Space, which offers artists and designers resources supporting creative, professional, and other forms of writing. Taft’s own writing and reviews have appeared in magazines and journals including Artforum, The Point, Texte Zur Kunste, Design & Culture, and Journal of Design History. She is curator of the forthcoming semi-permanent exhibition at the new Shaker Museum in Chatham, New York.

You can find Maggie’s book here.

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