Scandinavian Design, more than €2,1 million results

14 March 2018

•

PIASA’s first auction of Scandinavian Design in 2018, on February 15, yielded a total of €2.1 million. This new sale devoted to the Nordic creativity, replete with big-name masterpieces, confirms PIASA as leaders on the Design market.

Finn Juhl’s Chieftain Chair – The Epitome of Danish Comfort

Top price of €140,400 rewarded Finn Juhl’s icnonic Chieftan chair (lot 85, est. 90,000-100,000). In 1949 Finn Juhl (1912-89), the father of the Danish Modern style, created one of his most famous designs: the teak and leather Chieftain armchair, produced in collaboration with cabinet-maker Niels Vodder. The alluring curves and delicate handling of the natural materials are typical of Juhl’s work (est. €90,000-120,000).

The Chieftain was described as follows when unveiled in Copenhagen in 1949: ‘The Chieftain chair is designed according to scientific principles to ensure optimum comfort, and is already this year’s clear winner… this chair is so alive it seems bursting with vitality… Finn Juhl must be definitively classed as a great artist.’

After graduating from the Royal Art Academy in 1934, Juhl initially worked with Vilhelm Lauritzen then, along with the cabinet-maker Niels Vodder, designed furniture for his own home. When he opened his own workshop in 1945, his work immediately caught the eye with its pure lines and sculptural and organic forms, underpinned by a romantic approach to his era and its creativity.

Salto, The Pinnacle of Danish Ceramics

Axel Salto’s glazed stoneware sculpture The Innate Force of Things (1968) – a superb example of his ‘budding’ style – soared to €75,400 (lot 46, est. €40,000-60,000). Painter, poet, sculptor: Axel Salto was the complete artist. As a stoneware specialist and key figure at Royal Copenhagen, he was one of the most prolific and remarkable Danes of his time.

Salto was born in Copenhagen in 1889 and, after finishing school in 1907, spent a few turbulent years painting and drawing in Denmark and the South of France. His desire to work with a greater variety of materials led him to join the Carl Halier workshop, where he acquired perfect mastery of ceramic techniques and materials. He subsequently worked with Nathalie Krebs, and was awarded a silver medal at the 1925 Paris Exposition Universelle. From 1933 onwards, all his designs were produced by Royal Copenhagen, earning a Grand Prix de Céramique at the 1937 Exposition Universelle and another Grand Prix at the Milan Triennale of 1951.

Axel Salto drew inspiration from Nature, in which he found perpetual renewal. The PIASA auction includes a fine selection of works in his iconic Budding, Sprouting and Living Stone styles. His ‘germinating style’ marked his creative apotheosis, with buds great and small rising and falling in alluring rhythm. His 1960s glazed stoneware sculpture The Innate Force of Things is a superb example (est. €40,000-60,000).