Verner Panton
Danish design ”enfant terrible”, Verner Panton (1926-1998), started his career working in Arne Jacobsen’s office in 1951. He had graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts the same year. He then established his own studio in 1955. Panton broke with the Danish tradition of simple, pure and elegant lines in wooden furniture, and experimented with colour and new materials. He was a craftsman who used plastic and metal to create objects with a more international look. In 1960, he presented the result of a dream he had had for a long time; a chair moulded in one piece of plastic. This chair, simply called “Panton chair” is one of the icons of its time and made Panton’s name internationally famous. Verner Panton was a prolific designer of not only furniture, but also lighting and textiles. His colour-system “Pantone” is still used all over the world. In 1970 Verner Panton made a playful, multi-coloured room installation for the “Visiona“ Exhibition in Cologne were he demonstrates his interest for micro-environments. The room invited people to lie down or sit on upholstered, irregularly shaped forms in a space where ground, wall and floor melted together. In the late 60’s, seating came to be seen as an apparatus for interactive play more than an equipment for living, in a true psychedelic spirit. Panton received numerous design awards, including two A.I.D. awards in 1963 and 1968. He spent his last years in Switzerland.