Chieftain chair is one of Finn Juhl's iconic absolute masterpieces.
When it was launched in 1949, the chair marked the revival of the Danish furniture design tradition. Today, it is seen as one of the most important representatives of the Danish modern movement in the United States in the 1950s.
Inspired by modern art and foreign cultures, the Chieftain Chair with its organic shapes, liberated itself from traditional Danish furniture design and strict functionalism in both shape, construction and materials.
The Chieftain chair is probably the best-known of all Finn Juhl's chairs. It is a powerful design that not only dominates with its size and extravagance, but also needs plenty of space around it to do itself justice.
The Chieftain Chair - An Icon Within Furniture
Today, the Chieftain Chair is perceived as one of the most important exponents of the Danish Modern movement in the US during the 1950s. For this reason, Finn Juhl is often considered the founding father of Danish Modern.
Inspired by modern art and foreign cultures, the Chieftain Chair with its organic shapes, liberated itself from traditional Danish furniture design and strict functionalism in both shape, construction and materials.
In 2012, the Chieftain Chair won the Danish Design Award, Classic. The jury said in its motivation: ”Today, the Chieftain Chair stands as an inspiration to a new generation of furniture designers and as proof that attention to quality, international calibre and a will to break away from tradition can pave the way to make a difference as a designer”.
The Process Behind the Chieftain Chair
The Chieftain Chair is probably the most well-known piece of all of Finn Juhl’s chairs and a powerful design, which not only dominates in size and extravagance but also needs a lot of space around it to do itself justice. It is in true and proper fashion a chieftain. It has, with good reason, been called an icon of Danish furniture design.
Finn Juhl was however quite modest about the development process of the chair, and did not have any expectations of its greatness. Finn Juhl said:
“I started drawing the Chieftain Chair one day in the spring of 1949. I was at home, and I started drawing a small sketch around 10 AM with just four vertical lines connected with something. By two or three o’clock in the morning I had painted it. But in reality, I don’t know how long it took me to design that chair. Perhaps I had a vague idea for some time that I wanted to design something bigger. There had been so many small, handy chairs, so I probably felt like designing something a bit more pompous...”
