Ole Wanscher

Ole Wanscher (1903-1985) was one of the leading figures in the Scandinavian design movement and an integral part of modern Danish design. He studied with Kaare Klint at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and later worked at her studio. He found inspiration while traveling and in Egypt and Europe, where he began to consider furniture design as a part of architecture, thus emphasizing slender dimensions and resilient forms in his work, particularly in Colonial Chair and Colonial Sofa. His best-known designs were between the 1940s and 1960s when the philosophy of "design for all" emerged. Wanscher, internationally recognized, boasts of numerous awards such as the Copenhagen Carpenters' Guild Annual Award and the gold medal at the Milan Triennale in 1960.