Wright Auction

Without embellishment and expertly crafted, Finn Juhl’s furniture creations are distinguished from the work of his Danish contemporaries by their expressive and sculptural form. Trained as an architect and a lover of art, Juhl’s works reveal the influence of the contemporary arts on developing his aesthetic. Stressing form over function, Juhl’s earliest works made by Niels Vodder were closely aligned with Surrealism and inspired by the human forms of Jean Arp. For example, the Pelican chair introduced in 1940 at the Danish Cabinetmakers Guild features a dramatic and curvaceous shape that recalls forms in nature.

Pelican chair, 1940.

Juhl approached furniture design as though he were a sculptor; he explained, “A chair is not just a product of decorative art in a space, it is a form and a space itself.” Yet, he was also quick to define furniture as furniture and not as art. By mid-century, Juhl had found a more balanced blend of form and function without sacrificing the visual impact of his designs. In 1950 at the Danish Cabinetmakers Guild, Juhl introduced a sofa (a precursor to the present lot) with an organically shaped seat back attached to the wall and seat with tubular steel frames. Svend Erik Moller, a reviewer of the exhibition, wrote: “Finn Juhl has found the basis for his own very personal idiom in modern abstract art and in natural organic forms.”

Wall-mounted sofa, 1953.

The present lot is a custom sofa for the Villa K. Kokfeldt in Hellerup, Denmark in 1953. A variation of the sofa introduced in 1950, this large wall-mounted work features a long curved headrest with wraparound ears, reminiscent of his Pelican chair. By attaching the piece to the wall, the sofa becomes a more permanent structure within its environment while the biomorphic shape is mounted like a piece of art suspended from the wall.