Early life and education Finn Juhl was born on 30 January 1912 to an authoritarian father who was a textile wholesaler representing several English, Scottish and Swiss textile manufacturers in Denmark, and a mother who died shortly after he was born. From an early age he wanted to become an
art historian, already as a teenager spending much time at the
Statens Museum for Kunst and in spite of his young age receiving permission to borrow books at the
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, but his father convinced him instead to pursue a career in architecture. He was admitted to the Architecture School at the
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where from 1930 to 1934 he studied under
Kay Fisker, a leading architect of his day and noted lecturer.
Early career After graduating, Juhl worked for ten years at
Vilhelm Lauritzen's architectural firm, where he had also apprenticed as a student. In close collaboration with Viggo Boesen, Juhl was responsible for much of the interior design of the national broadcaster
Danmarks Radio's
Radiohuset, one of the firm's most high-profile assignments during those years. Juhl made his debut in 1937 when he commenced a collaboration with cabinetmaker Niels Vodder which would continue until 1959 and exhibited at the eleventh
Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition. Therefore, his early chairs were originally produced in small numbers, eighty at most, because the Guild shows emphasized the work of the artisan over the burgeoning industry of
mass production. However, they were almost all reissued later in his career. He married Inge-Marie Skaarup on 15 July 1937 but they later divorced. The Guild Exhibitions were an important venue for the young designers who sought to renew Danish design, turning their backs on the traditional historicist styles, heavy and with ornaments and
plush, instead creating modern furniture which fitted the new trends in architecture. The projects was highly controversial and Juhl's first work met much criticism. His Pelican chair, designed in 1939 and first produced in 1940, was described as a "tired walrus" and "aesthetics in the worst possible sense of the word". In spite of the initial criticism, Juhl's work began to influence the style of homes abroad throughout the 1940s. In Denmark, however, his popularity did not reach that of his peers,
Børge Mogensen and
Hans Wegner, who were less radical in their designs and relied more on
Kaare Klint, leader of the furniture school at the academy and the
Nestor of modern Danish furniture design. chamber In 1951–52, he designed the
Trusteeship Council Chamber in the
Headquarters of the United Nations in
New York City. The Government of Denmark contributed approximately $20,000 towards its construction. At the
Milan Triennial in the 1950s, he won a total of five gold medals, further adding to his international reputation. During this decade he continued to design more specifically for the mass market than had been the case in the 1940s. From 1961, he lived in a
common-law marriage with Hanne Wilhelm Hansen, a member of the family behind the
Edition Wilhelm Hansen music-publishing house. In his career, Juhl also designed refrigerators for
General Electric, glassware, and ceramics. In 1965, he was a visiting professor at the
Institute of Design in Chicago. == Death ==