Jens Risom

Jens Risom, 95, is a furniture designer. Perhaps his most celebrated piece is the 654W lounge chair he designed for Knoll, the German-American furniture-makers. Risom was born in Copenhagen but left for America in 1939, working for Knoll before joining the US Army, designing camouflage for Sherman tanks and translating for General Patton in Germany. After the war, he founded his own company, moving away from the Bauhaus-inspired steel of Knoll to new ways with wood.

Risom's reputation as a furniture designer continued to grow, and Risom began to promote Scandinavian design in home furniture to the broader American public. In the 1950s, JRD ran a series of ads featuring photography by Richard Avedon and the slogan "The Answer is Risom".  The result of this success was that in 1954, JRD launched a major expansion of its production facilities.   In the late 1950s, JRD shifted its focus away from home furnishings and towards office furniture, hospital furniture, and library furniture. In 1961, Risom was one of six furniture designers featured in a profile in Playboy magazine. One of Risom's executive office chairs became famous when Lyndon B. Johnson chose to use it in the Oval Office.

Until the 1970's Spain did not play a large role in the narrative of 20th century design. However, a renewed sense of vitality and freedom blossomed in Spain following the death of Franco, and in the city of Barcelona a new Spanish design movement emerged that would soon be recognized internationally. Many of Barcelona's regional designers made reference to the style of Antoni Gaudi, as well as to the avant garde heritage of painter Joan Miro. Others developed a more individual, modern and universally appealing style. Two of the most prominent of these architects and designers were Javier Mariscal and Jorge Pensi.

* Items listed on this page are reproductions of the original design. Items are not produced by the actual designer nor are they affiliated with the official manufacturers. Any mention of the designer or original product name is only for comparison purposes. *