BØRGE MOGENSEN

Børge Mogensen (1914–1972)

 

Børge Mogensen is one of the most important Danish designers of his time.

Having started his career as a cabinetmaker in 1934, he became a student at the Danish School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen from 1936 to 1938, then studied at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts’ School of Architecture from 1938 to 1942.

As a student, Mogensen was deeply influenced by his professor, Kaare Klint, who conducted research on the proportion of furniture in regard of the measurements of the human body. This functionalist approach was shared by eminent European counterparts, such as Le Corbusier disciples or the Bauhaus school, but many Danish designers like Mogensen would create an original path.

The modernists were often rejecting the past as a whole by turning to new building techniques and new materials. On the contrary, Mogensen wanted to use the traditional Danish cabinetmaking and retained wood and leather to create new shapes.

His main goal was to build quality but affordable furniture to satisfy the needs of a fast growing middle-class in post-war Denmark.

Therefore, his designs were not to be the most spectacular or aesthetic but the most suited to the everyday life of his clientele.

His models can be seen as classical and simple while strongly built and perfectly proportionate. 

Mogensen never diverged from this social philosophy while other colleagues moved towards sculptural design.

This is why his work is so enduring and looked for by so many collectors around the world.