Sawhorse Easychair CH 28

Object NameChair

Artist / Maker Hans Wegner (Danish, 1914 - 2007)

Date1952-1955

MediumTeak and Oak

Dimensions29 × 27 in. (73.7 × 68.6 cm)

ClassificationsFurniture

Credit LineGift of Geitel Winakor. In the Permanent Collection, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.

Object numberUM2007.77

Status

Not on view

Collections

CultureDanish

Label TextFrom the University Museums Collections Handbook, vol. 2, 2025: Hans Wegner was a prolific and astute designer, whose sense of form and great craftsmanship propelled his perfectly balanced, simple, and beautiful furniture to the forefront of Scandinavian design in the mid-20th century. Wegner was born in Southern Denmark and apprenticed with a local cabinetmaker at the age of fourteen, passing his journeyman’s test by eighteen. He first came to Copenhagen in 1935 for military service. Soon after, he began to study with Kaare Klint, who became one the earliest and most important proponents and teachers of the Danish modern functional style based upon the understanding of traditional furniture construction. Wegner embarked upon his career working with architects, such as Arne Jacobsen, to design complimentary furniture for their interiors, but in time realized his creations could stand on their own. Wegner had his breakthrough in 1949 with one of his most iconic and important designs, the Round Chair. It was traditional in the sense that it is made of wood with a high degree of craftsmanship and included a rounded top rail that had been a standard part of Danish chair design for at least 200 years. Yet it was modern in terms of honesty and simplicity of construction that gave the chair a great sense of lightness. The popularity of Round Chair was meteoric and reached its apogee when used in 1960 as the seating for John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon’s presidential debate, the first ever televised. In the 1950s and 60s Wegner became an internationally recognized designer. Designed in 1952, the Sawhorse Easy Chair CH28 showcases Wegner’s mastery in using wood to create a chair that exudes both comfort and great taste. _____________________________________________________ Label #2: Designed in 1952, the Sawhorse or Sawback chair is very comfortable and made of pure wood. The CH 28 is closely related to Wegner's CH 29, a dining chair. "Many foreigners have asked me how we made the Danish style. And I've answered that it...was rather a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest."- Hans Wegner Hans Wegner was born in 1914: Tønder, Denmark where he completed his early education and was trained as a cabinet maker. In 1936, at the age of 22 he attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen, returning later as a tutor. He worked as an assistant to Erik Møller and Arne Jacobsen until 1943, helping on their design for the Århus Town Hall, and adding some of his own furniture. In 1943 he opened his own office and came out with the Chinese chair which, along with his 1949 "Round" chair would provide the basis for many of his later chairs. Interiors magazine, in America, put the Round chair on the cover in 1950 and called it 'the world's most beautiful chair,' catapulting Wegner into international fame and sparking a profitable export market. It became known simply as,The Chair and began making high profile appearances like the televised 1961 presidential debates between Nixon and Kennedy . Of the design Wegner said, "many foreigners have asked me how we made the Danish style. And I've answered that it...was rather a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest." While "the Chair" is the probably the chief icon of Wegner's career, and a form that he revisits often, he is responsible for a number of other designs. He and Johannes Hansen exhibited a joint project at the Cabinetmakers show every year from 1941-66, Wegner claiming that it was "more like a game...we had to have something to display every autumn." His own chair designs from those decades, manufactured primarily today by PP Møbler, were made with the modern, sculptural idea that they could stand on their own, rather than as parts of a furniture set. The Peacock chair from 1947, with a slatted back rest fanning out to evoke the bird's plume, was inspired by the traditional "Windsor" chair. His 1949 Folding Chair hung on the wall, and his Shell chair from the same year experimented with curving the wood in three dimensions to form the seat. The multi-purpose Valet Chair, designed in 1953, had elements for hanging up or storing each piece of a Mans Suit. The backrest is carved to be used as a coat hanger, pants can be hung on a rail at the edge of the seat and everything else can be stowed in a storage space underneath the seat. Inspired by classical portraits of Danish merchants sitting in Ming chairs, Wegner created series of chairs that helped establish Denmark as an international leader of modern design. Of this seies the Wishbone Chair is widely considered to be his most successful design. In 1951, Wegner and Finnish Tapio Wirkkala are the first to be awarded 'Lunningsprisen'. In the early 1960s he came out with several variations on the Bull chair which came with or without horns, and was a fine example of the line Wegner could masterfully walk between elegance and playfulness. "We must take care," he once said, "that everything doesn't get so dreadfully serious. We must play - but we must play seriously." In his later years he continued to design chairs and has also worked with lighting, such as the Pole lamp created in 1976 with his daughter Marianne. A true craftsman, Wegner stated that, "the chair does not exist. The good chair is a task one is never completely done with." World renowned for blending a variety of natural material in his classic designs, Hans Wegner has received many international accolades for his work, among them : "the Triennale" 1951, 1954 and 1957; "Royal Society of Arts" London 1959; "Citations of Merit" Pratt Institute, New York 1959 and the "International Design award", New York, 1957. In June 1997 Wegner was awarded an Honary Doctorate by the The Royal College of Art in London. Hans J. Wegner died in Copenhagen 26th January 2007 at the age of 92. He is survived by his wife and two daughters.

PeriodMid Century Modern

Locations