Jens Risom (1916-2016) Danish/American, Pair of Knoll Lounge Chairs - AS IS. Wood beams and cloth webbing. Marked on support bar with metal label that displays Risom's signature and the words "KnollStudio 1941." 

Condition: Commensurate with use. 

Size: 20 1/4 x 28 x 30 in. 

Jens Risom was born on May 8th, 1916 in Copenhagen, Denmark. His father was a prominent architect, Sven Risom, a member of the school of Nordic Classicism. Risom was trained as a designer at the Copenhagen School of Industrial Arts and Design (Kunsthåndværkerskolen), where he studied under Ole Wanscher and Kaare Klint and worked alongside Hans Wegner and Børge Mogensen. Risom spent two years at Niels Brock Copenhagen Business College before beginning work as a furniture developer and interior designer with the architectural firm of Ernst Kuhn. He later relocated to Stockholm, Sweden, taking a job with a small architectural firm that led him to join the design department of Nordiska Kompaniet where he was introduced to Alvar Aalto and Bruno Mathsson. In 1939 Risom traveled to New York City to study American design, but found it difficult to obtain work as a furniture designer. He took a number of commissions for textile designs that brought him to the attention of Dan Cooper, and ultimately led to his work being included in Collier’s “House of Ideas” designed by Edward Durell Stone and constructed in front of Rockefeller Center during the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In 1941 Risom teamed up with entrepreneur Hans Knoll to launch the Hans Knoll Furniture Company. With less than twenty pieces total, including stools, armchairs, and lounges made from cedar and surplus webbing, this unassuming first collection is now acknowledged as one of the formative cornerstones of the early Mid Century Modern design movement. Within a year Risom sold some designs to Frederik Lunning Inc. who produced prototypes for the New York division of Georg Jensen Inc., launched as The Lunning Collection in 1942. Risom was drafted into the United States Army in 1943 and served under General George S. Patton. After completing his military service he briefly returned to Knoll in New York, but soon decided to launch his own firm, Jens Risom Design (JRD), in 1946. Risom's reputation as a furniture designer continued to grow as he promoted Scandinavian design aesthetics to the American public. By 1954 JRD was able to expand significantly, shifting its focus away from home furnishings and towards office furniture, hospital furniture, and library furniture. Risom’s executive office chairs became famous and highly sought after when President Lyndon B. Johnson chose one of his designs for the Oval Office. Risom sold JRD to Dictaphone in 1970, staying on as CEO for three years before relocating to New Canaan, Connecticut and launching a consulting service, Design Control. In 1996 Risom was presented with the Danish Knight’s Cross by Margrethe II of Denmark, and in the early 2000s his work experienced a significant revival thanks to reissues by Knoll and Ralph Pucci. He died on December 9th, 2016 at the remarkable age of 100. Many of Risom’s furniture designs are displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at the Smithsonian, and he is considered an exemplar of both American and Scandinavian Mid Century Modern design.

Commensurate with use.