Verner Panton

Born: 1926 - Died: 1998
Best-known works: Tivoli chair, Verner Panton chair, Bachelor chair, FlowerPot lamps & Topan lamps - both from &Tradition, Globe lamp from Verpan, Panthella lamps from Louis Poulsen
Trainging: Architect    

Training
Verner Panton had close ties with many of the most important Danish designers of the time. He was trained by Poul Henningsen at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and after completing his degree he got a job working for Denmark’s greatest architect, Arne Jacobsen. Panton was also friends with designer/craftsman Hans Wegner. But where Wegner’s skill was in modernising the classic Danish teak chair, Panton’s passion lay with plastic and other manmade materials that could be created in vibrant colours and shaped into geometric forms in the spirit of Pop Art.

Meeting Poul Henningsen at the Royal Danish Academy inspired Panton to take up product design. (Panton actually married Henningsen’s daughter Tove Kemp in 1950 but they were divorced soon afterward.)

Arne Jacobsen was just as important a figure for Panton and together the two created the famous Ant chair among other objects.