Championing modernism, craftsmanship, and Nordic functionality, in combination with the unexpected influence of Chinese furniture, Wegner designed over 500 chairs in his lifetime. Over 100 of these were produced, and several became icons in the international furniture design arena, including: the 1949 Round chair, which the American magazine Interiors called “the world’s most beautiful chair" (and which was featured in the first ever televised presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in 1961); the 1947 Peacock; the 1949 Shell; and the 1953 Valet chairs.
Wegner’s furniture is included in the permanent collections of the world’s most respected museums, and he is commonly credited as a driving force in the “Danish Modern” movement that changed the way the world looked at furniture in the 1950s and 1960s.
Wegner passed away in Copenhagen in 2007 at age 92.
