Finn Juhl – Watercolors and Drawings

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The exhibition was made possible thanks to the generous collaboration of:

House of Finn Juhl

&

Designmuseum Danmark

Finn Juhl (1912–1989) is today recognised as one of the most luminous figures in twentieth-century design and architecture, and among the rare few who succeeded in attaining an international stature at a remarkably early moment in his career.

In the early 1950s—at a time when Scandinavian design was beginning to reveal its quiet yet transformative presence upon the international stage—Juhl had already assumed a position of singular prominence. He was entrusted with the design of the Trusteeship Council Chamber at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, a commission that placed Danish modernism within one of the most symbolically charged architectural settings of the post-war world. In 1951 he was further called upon to conceive and design the annual Good Design exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York: the most influential international platform for the presentation of Scandinavian design. While the exhibition gathered the works of the leading Danish designers of the period, its scenography and spatial orchestration were conceived in their entirety by Finn Juhl.

Only three years later, when the Tenth Milan Triennale opened its doors, Juhl was once again invited to shape the international perception of Danish design through the conception and design of the Danish Pavilion in Milan.

Throughout his career, Finn Juhl’s research remained steadfastly devoted to the exploration of organic and sinuous form. Working long before the advent of digital modelling, he developed his designs through a highly cultivated practice of drawing. His projects were articulated through a refined watercolor technique whose delicacy and precision conveyed, with rare sensitivity, the sculptural character, rhythm, and spatial presence of his furniture.

The exhibition at settantaventidue, realized in collaboration with Designmuseum Danmark and House of Finn Juhl, brings together a wide selection of Finn Juhl’s watercolors and drawings. Particular attention is devoted to the works conceived for the major international exhibitions of the 1950s—most notably those for the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Milan Triennale—revealing the poetic and intellectual foundations from which his most celebrated designs first emerged.

Conceptual and minimal art, electroacoustic experimentation, sound art and field recording, radical and utopian architecture, are at the centre settantaventidue’s program.

settantaventidue is committed to an articulated and rigorous cultural proposal, concentrating specifically on experimentation and research in the fields of visual, sonic and architectural arts with determined and consistent trajectories estranged from mainstream culture, conventional artistic discourses, and market dynamics.

All of settantaventidue’s cultural activities are entirely organized and financed by the non-profit entity Umbra Grey ETS, thanks to the generous collaboration of:

Main partner and supporter:

Kira A. Princess of Prussia Foundation, Germany

Partners:

TomoTomo, Milano

Paper&People, Milano

Press Point, Milano

Zurich Insurance Plc Italia & Consulenze Assicurative srl-Brescia

AGL s.r.l.

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