I have put two Jens Risom stools in this auction. The first one is leather strapped, and I bought it at the Southfield Modernism show in 2002. Richard Wright was exhibiting at the same show, and we were walking around during set-up when we both noticed the stool. When we inquired about the piece and the guy working the booth told us that $450 was his best price, Richard immediately set it down and walked away. I followed, telling Richard that I really liked the stool. He agreed that it was very nice, but thought it was way too expensive to resell. However, I couldn’t stop obsessing, so at the end of the show, I went back over to the guy and offered him $350. We settled on $400, and when I walked by Richard’s booth with it, he looked at me and just shook his head. I loved that moment!
If asked to select one word to describe Patrick, I would resist and pick two. The first would be curiosity — a fundamental essential, to stimulate inquiry and rigour in all things, both great and small, of any era or region, type or surface. Even the most fleeting survey of this selection for sale is a celebration of innovation and of inspiration — an unerring eye for the unusually exceptional, or perhaps the exceptionally unusual. The chances are, that these are indeed discoveries that you have not yet realised that you needed to make.
Mentor, would be my second word. If artefacts and objects articulate visual, cultural and historic language, then the fluency of skillful mentorship — to guide, nurture, describe and explain — releases the eloquence of murmuring histories. In this capacity Patrick is that most earnest and sincere of excellent narrators. If ever I had friends, clients or colleagues visiting New York looking for unusual inspiration, there was always the certainty that Patrick’s venues would offer them a glimpse of the hitherto unseen or the unusually seductive, always with the reassurance of the most fascinating story waiting to be told.
Mentorship and curiosity, when balanced in equal measure, reveal the precious alchemy of a curator. And it is the duty of the mature curator to discern and detect, to cultivate change, and from there to pioneer, and to share. Innovation is never static, and the Present is already the Future. Fresh dialogs evolve, energies to be nurtured, opportunities to be guided. Renewed and re-orientated, Patrick’s decision to exchange his bricks-and-mortar Tribeca gallery for a new interactive Brooklyn space aligns him towards a new inquisitive future as supportive benefactor, interlocutor and mentor to a fresh yield of talented creators — those established and those rising — and the quest for discovery rejuvenates.
— Simon Andrews
andrewsartadvisory.com
Jens Risom 1916–2016
Often credited with bringing the Scandinavian look to America, Jens Risom crafted enduring, modern furnishings throughout his lengthy career as a designer. Born in Copenhagen in 1916, Risom’s father Sven was a prominent architect. As a young man, he attended the Copenhagen School of Industrial arts and Design where he studied under the Danish masters, Ole Wanscher and Kaare Klint. After graduation, Risom cut his teeth in the design department of Sweden’s Nordiska Kompaniet, before moving to the United States in 1939. In New York City, Risom found freelance work with Dan Cooper and became acquainted with a driven young immigrant from Germany named Hans Knoll. Looking to expand his small company, Knoll asked Risom if he would be interested in designing furniture and interiors for clients around the city. Risom agreed, and in 1942, the duo published the first catalog for the Hans Knoll Company showcasing fifteen pieces from Risom’s 600 line. The inaugural collection included chairs, stools and lounges expertly crafted from spare wood with webbed seats woven from surplus parachute straps (a result of wartime material shortages). Their ingenuity paid off and the venture effectively launched the careers of both men and ushered in a new era of American design.
Auction Results Jens Risom
