The man who designed my pre-school chair dies at 92

From the NYT:

Hans Wegner, whose Danish Modern furniture — most famously his chairs — helped change the course of design history in the 1950s and ’60s by sanding modernism’s sharp edges and giving aesthetes a comfortable seat, died on Jan. 26 in Copenhagen. He was 92...

He also earned a footnote in political history, when, in 1960, Vice President Richard M. Nixon and Senator John F. Kennedy were seated on Wegner chairs during the first nationally televised presidential debate.

That's a nice thing to have on your résumé, even an incredibly long one like Wegner's. Check out the wide selection of artful and pricey chairs that bear his name here and here and here.

But I was surprised to discover (via daddytypes.com) that Wegner had even ventured into children's furniture:

When in 1944 Wegner's good friend and colleague, Børge Mogensen, fathered a son, it was difficult for Wegner to find an adequate christening gift because of the war. So he decided to make one himself, and what was more appropriate than a small piece of furniture for the new-born... He finally decided for a chair consisting of 4 flat parts that could be assembled to a chair without the use of tools. In this way little Peter not only got a chair but at the same time a toy he cold assemble himself and take apart again.

Maybe my memory is faulty in my old age but I swear I've seen this chair, or knock-offs of it, in every nursery school, kindergarten, and day-care center I've attended or come across.

Wikipedia has a few choice Wegner quotes that are applicable to every area of design:

"Many foreigners have asked me how we made the Danish style. And I've answered that it...was rather a continuous process of purification, and for me of simplification, to cut down to the simplest possible elements of four legs, a seat and combined top rail and arm rest."

"The chair does not exist. The good chair is a task one is never completely done with."

"A chair is to have no backside. It should be beautiful from all sides and angles."

Hans, dude, a chair with no backside is called a stool. J/K all the way, I know what you meant.