Niels Gammelgaard
Members of the Modern Shows® team have loved, lost and sold many pieces of Niels Gammelgaard over the years and still use pieces in our stagings at modernshowspropertystagings.com for developers and homeowners showing on themodernhouse.com so to hear Stockholm’s Auktionsverk is showcasing Niels Gammelgaard’s work on August 26th fills our hearts with joy. Niels Gammelgaard is a visionary in the world of industrial design, with a career that has seamlessly blended function with elegance. Best known for his pioneering contributions to Scandinavian design, Gammelgaard has played a pivotal role in shaping the aesthetic language of contemporary furniture. His approach is deeply rooted in the Danish design tradition, where simplicity, utility, and beauty co-exist in perfect harmony.
3691206. NIELS GAMMELGAARD. “IKEA Guide”, shelf, IKEA, designed in 1985, steel wire ends, 4 shelves with shelf edges lacquered in red, green, blue and yellow.
Gammelgaard first garnered international attention through his collaboration with IKEA in the 1980s, where he co-designed the iconic “Moment” chair. This piece exemplified his design ethos: it was affordable, accessible, and yet uncompromising in style. The chair’s tubular steel frame and mesh seat not only demonstrated a mastery of minimalist form but also a deep understanding of materials and production processes. This democratization of design, bringing high-concept ideas to the mass market, became a hallmark of Gammelgaard’s work.
3656578. NIELS GAMMELGAARD. “Ikea PS Axvall”, chair, IKEA, designed in 2002, green lacquered metal, seat and back in elastic bands.3656578. NIELS GAMMELGAARD. “Ikea PS Axvall”, chair, IKEA, designed in 2002, green lacquered metal, seat and back in elastic bands.
Beyond this commercial success, Gammelgaard’s influence extends into the broader design narrative. His work is characterized by a keen attention to ergonomics and a relentless pursuit of innovation. He is a designer who sees beyond the object, considering the user experience as an integral part of the creative process. This approach is evident in his numerous projects, which range from seating solutions to storage systems, all marked by a distinct clarity of purpose.
Throughout his career, Gammelgaard has remained a figure of quiet influence. He continues to inspire a new generation of designers who look to his work as a touchstone for thoughtful, human-centered design. His legacy is one of creating objects that are not only beautiful but also fundamentally useful; an achievement that places him among the greats in the field of industrial design.
3656591. NIELS GAMMELGAARD. “Luna, chairs, 2 pcs. and frame chair, Bent Krog, designed in 1988, metal frame with plastic-covered back and seat
Niels Gammelgaard’s contribution to design is not merely in the products he has created, but in the way he has shaped the very discourse of design itself.
We asked Andreas Siesing of Auctionet to explain a bit more about why they are highlighting this talented designer this month.
“When the late 60s and 1970s gave way to the 1980s, the aesthetic foundations were shaken to the core. The decade of velour-clad fathers was replaced by yuppie men, and colors like yellow, orange, and brown were phased out in favor of fresh new pastels like pink, light blue, and turquoise. At the turn of the decade, designers also began to look back to older ideals, and as a result, a kind of neo-functionalism emerged, which quickly came to be known as High Tech.
Thin pieces in metal, often with mesh-covered surfaces, became the height of fashion almost overnight. And perhaps the person who best represented this ideal was Niels Gammelgaard, at the time a designer for IKEA. In a period of expansion for the already large Swedish company, he changed course and gave IKEA stores entirely new interiors through his light models, several of which are today considered Scandinavian design classics. His ultra-light chairs Rappen and Åland are excellent examples of this, as are the armchairs Järvi and Oti.
Another significant model is the Guide bookshelf, which, with its airy metal sides and hints of the era’s trendy colors, almost embodies the 1980s. Perhaps the most well-known pieces come from his Moment series, which appeared in virtually every conceivable context for a few years. Like many other IKEA products, Gammelgaard’s designs have been re-evaluated by the auction market in recent years. Items that were once dismissed as simple utilitarian objects are now viewed with entirely different eyes, and rightly so. Here and there, they might even be described as timeless but could there be a more dated piece of furniture than Niels Gammelgaard’s KRI 68 trolley from 1991, designed for a video cassette recorder? Even this piece will go under the hammer on August 26th at Stockholms Auktionskammare here…”
Andreas Siesing (above) is a Swedish expert at Auctionet, specializing in appraising antiques, art, and collectibles with extensive knowledge in Scandinavian design and fine art.
Find Stockholms Auktionskammare at https://auctionet.com
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