Mobilia no. 180
July 1970
Mette Bratvold [Editor]
Mette Bratvold [Editor]: Mobilia no. 180. Snekkersten, Denmark: Mobilia, July 1970. Original edition. Text in Danish, English, German and French. Perfect bound and side stapled wrappers. Unpaginated. Multiple paper stocks. Elaborate graphic design throughout, with custom torn and cut pages, ink smears, colour printing and a piece of wool bound in under the direction of Aagaad Andersen, Per Arnoldi, and Susanne Ussing and Carsten Hoff. Period furniture advertisements. Uncoated wrappers lightly worn with a worn and chipped spine crown, but a very good or better copy.
”This issue of Mobilia has been published with the support of the Jubillee Fund of the Danish National Bank. Gunnar Aagaad Andersen arranged the graphic layout. Torn pages, ink smears, colour printing and the piece of wool are original documentation made by Aagaad Andersen, Per Arnoldi, and Susanne Ussing and Carsten Hoff.”
This issue of Mobilia is a Pop Art explosion, with custom torn pages and printing effects, a bound in piece of wool, coarse halftone foldout centerfolds, created by Aagaad Andersen, Per Arnoldi, Susanne Ussing and Carsten Hoff to narrate and deconstuct and question the central concept of Art + Industry. A truly unique periodical that reaches backward and forward simultaneously. Highly recommended.
10.25 x 10.18 magazine with elaborately designed editorial content and period furniture advertisements. The editors described their magazine thus: “Mobilia is an international subscription periodical for furniture, art, handicraft, etc. Mobilia is published in two issues, one of them in Danish and English, and the other one in Swedish and German, the text having been translated as a whole. Mobilia is issued to all members of Møbelfabrikantforeningen i Danmark [The Association of Danish Furniture manufacturers], of Møbelhandlernes Centralforening i Danmark [The Association of Furniture Dealers in Denmark], and of Indendørs Arkitekt Foreningen [The Association of Interior Architects]; in Sweden a collective subscription has been taken by Sveriges Möbelindustriförbund [The Association of Swedish Furniture Manufacturers]. “
- Art + Industry Special Issue
- Thanks For The Start
- Nicety: Gunnar Aagaad Andersen
- Tools: Gunnar Aagaad Andersen
- A Piece Of History—No Date: Gunnar Aagaad Andersen
- Colours: Gunnar Aagaad Andersen
- Flowers: Gunnar Aagaad Andersen
- Materials: Gunnar Aagaad Andersen
- Collaboration I: Steffen Jørgensen
- Collaboration Ii: Steffen Jørgensen
- Notes About Art And Industry And So Forth: Per Arnoldi
- Inspiration. An Interview With Henning Rohde
- Sensing A Demand. An Interview With Karl Krøyer
- The Decision-Makers. An Interview With Jens Bang
- Forming An Invironment. An Interview With Mads Eg Damgård
- Alternatives. An Interview With Susanne Ussing & Carsten Hoff
- Artist And Industry
- Administrative Design
Includes work by William Morris, Louis Sullivan, Kasimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, Meret Oppenheim, Jasper Johns, César Bouillotte, Claes Oldenburg, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, and others.
Includes advertising work by Halling-Koch, Bang & Olufsen, Frem Saxo, Herman Miller, Erik Jørgensen, Rud Thygesen & Johny Sjørensen, Steen Østergaard, Cado, Ligna, Jørgen Rasmussen, Kevi,and more.
In 1954 the four Scandinavian countries, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland arranged what proved to be the most important marketing effort ever for Scandinavian design—the monumental exhibition Design in Scandinavia. From 1954 to 1957 Design in Scandinavia toured the United States and Canada. The exhibition was presented in 27 cities, and it was a huge success, initiated by The Danish Society of Arts and Crafts and its sister organizations in the other participating countries.
Based on the success the four countries established what they called the Scandinavian Design Cavalcade, which had a lot of US press coverage as well. In that connection the July 1959 issue of House Beautiful was centered around The Scandinavian Look in U.S. Homes, and it was Denmark and Danish Design in particular that the magazine focussed on. Besides the editorial pages, the numerous ads illustrates that Danish modern furniture was increasingly gaining a stronghold among certain groups of American consumers.
Importers and retail chains like John Stuart Inc., George Tanier, Raymor and Dunbar etc. now sold Danish modern furniture in the US, and by now it was not only hand crafted furniture from the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers’ Guild Exhibitions but also pieces from industrial furniture producers like Fritz Hansen, Søborg Møbelfabrik, Fredericia Furniture and many others. From the end of the 1950s Danish Department stores and other retailers produced comprehensive brochures and booklets in English with prices in US Dollars presenting Danish Design to American and other tourists.
Without exception, these stores all presented the narrative of Danish modern. “Denmark is known all over the world for its exquisite home furnishing, which are characterized by their outstanding design and superb craftsmanship” the department store Magasin claimed in its brochure “Danish Design.”