The PK23™ was originally conceptualised by Poul Kjærholm in 1954 but remained in the form of sketches until recently. Characterised by its wide, low-profile form tailored for relaxed conversations, the chair features vertically divided laminated veneer shells for both the seat and backrest, bridged by an elegant connector detail. The PK23 chair represents an evolutionary stage in Kjærholm's design journey, blending elements from his earlier PK4 and PK0 models while foreshadowing the structural and minimalist style that would come to define later works.
Height: 70cm
Width: 75cm
Depth: 62cm
Seat height: 36cm
The shell comes in 3 varieties: black-painted ash veneer, walnut veneer or oak veneer. A double bracket connector detail elegantly bridges the backrest divide.
The chair's base comes in stainless steel for all shell material types or a black powder-coated steel base for the black-painted ash version only.
Poul Kjaerholm was born in 1929 in Øster Vrå, Denmark. He finished his apprenticeship as a cabinet maker with Grønbech in 1948 and graduated at the School of Arts and Crafts in Copenhagen in 1952 with a.o. the PK 25 chair that is still produced by Fritz Hansen.
Poul Kjaerholm was very articulate and with natural authority he started an outstanding career as an educator in the same year (1952) but continued to study with Prof. Erik Herløw and Prof. Palle Suenson.
From 1955, the year he did the famous PK 22, for which he received the Lunning Award in 1958, he became assistant at the Royal Danish Academy of Arts in Copenhagen and lecturer in 1959. He became head of the Institute for Design in 1973 and finally professor in 1976 until his premature dead in 1980. Over all these years he designed dozens of chairs, long chairs, and tables that became landmarks for Danish furniture design, including the famous PK 24 long chair. Most of his furniture was initially and until 1982 produced by his friend E. Kold Christensen in Hellerup.
A wide selection of that production has been part of the Fritz Hansen collection since.
Inspiration
