Trapholt
Æblehaven 23
Kolding
+45 76 30 05 30
Nanna Ditzel — Free Space, Furniture design, experiments, prototypes
Permanent exhibition

In connection with Nanna Ditzel’s 80th anniversaryTrapholt presents a special exhibition with Nanna Ditzel - one of Denmark’s most important and innovative designers.

Above all Nanna Ditzel has designed furniture, yet she has also designed jewellery for the Danish company of Georg Jensen, textiles for the well-known company of Kvadrat and many people know her for the colour pattern of the danish IC3 trains.

For this exhibition Nanna Ditzel arranged her free space — a room that is midnight blue just like the sky on a starry night. For this room Nanna Ditzel has designed a number of new pieces of furniture, experiments and prototypes.

Nanna Ditzel made her first appearance as a designer in 1944 and now she has more than 60 years of experience, and many of her works of furniture, jewellery and textiles are produced today. She has never been afraid of going her own way, and for many years she has been part of the Danish, experimenting furniture production.

Nanna Ditzel:
"I enjoy breaking the surfaces of the furniture. Through a pattern or paiting I stress the curves in different manners. I am fascinated by Leni Riefenstahl’s fantastic book on the African Kau people, who decorate their faces and bodies with painted patterns and shapes.. The same can be done with furniture and thus you can decide on which of the shapes of the furniture you wish to focus.

"I use the exhibition as a free space to do some of the things that I like to try out."

Nanna Ditzel's career encompassed six decades of design innovation. Her work — furniture, fabrics, jewelry, and more — has been exhibited and acclaimed throughout the world and made her a cultural icon in her native Denmark.

Ditzel's designs addressed practical applications with dramatically unorthodox forms. Continually exploring new materials and techniques, her designs ranged from simple wood children's furniture to exotic shapes inspired by flowers and seashells.

Innumerable awards and honors included a lifelong Artist's Grant from the Danish Ministry of Culture. Nanna Ditzel died in June of 2005.

Born in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1923. Trained as a cabinetmaker before studies at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Graduated in furniture design in 1946. Established own design studio together with Jorgen Ditzel the same year and continued to work in the design sector until shortly before her death in Copenhagen in June 2005.

From the start of her career in the post war years, she was always challenged by new materials and new techniques. Nanna worked in various materials such as fibreglass, wickerwork and foam rubber, and in various disciplines such as cabinet-making, jewellery, tableware, applied art and textiles.

In the 1950's she experimented with split-level floor seating. From 1968 to '86 lived in London, establishing the international furniture house Interspace in Hampstead with Kurt Heide.

Among her designs in continuous production are jewellery for Georg Jensen, textiles for Kvadrat and furniture for Fredericia, Kvist, Getama and others.

Nanna Ditzel has exhibited internationally with One Woman exhibitions in Amsterdam, Berlin, New York, Vienna, London, Stockholm, Milan, Glasgow, Manchester, Reykjavik, Paris and nationally in Denmark.

Awarded numerous international prizes including, in 1990, the Gold Medal in the International Furniture Design Competition, Japan, for her Bench for Two (Fredericia). Elected Honourable Royal Designer, Royal Society of Arts, in London in 1996 and awarded the lifelong Artists' Grant by the Danish Ministry of Culture in 1998.

Nanna Ditzel, Free Space.

Nanna Ditzel, Free Space.

Nanna Ditzel, Free Space.