Verner Panton collection

Verner Panton , born February 13, 1926 in Gamtofte, Funen, died September 5, 1998 in Copenhagen. Was a Danish designer and one of the most influential designers in 1960s Europe. He was also a resistance fighter.

His main efforts were in furniture, lighting and interior design, where he experimented with new shapes and bold colors, utilizing the latest materials and production methods. Steel, plastic and fiberglass were some of his favorite materials.

He was educated at Odense Technical School and at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture 1947-51 and was thereafter active in Denmark, but especially abroad. He lived in Switzerland for the last many years. Panton was an employee of architect Arne Jacobsen 1950-52, went on study trips to European countries 1952-55 and opened his own design studio in 1955.

During the occupation, he was a resistance fighter in a military group in Bogense, which, among other things, performed the dangerous work of receiving dropped weapons.

He is known for the Panton Chair, which was the first cantilever chair made of a single piece of plastic; a revolutionary idea and technique for the time. The chair is still produced, but in an updated version of polypropylene, which is not as environmentally damaging as fiberglass / fiber-reinforced plastic.