Erik Ole Jørgensen

Intense colours and rich palette combinations characterise furniture and textile designer Erik Ole Jørgensen's extensive collection. He discovered his talent when, as a 19-year-old furniture upholstering graduate, he contracted polio and was confined to a bed in Copenhagen's Frederiksberg Hospital for an entire year. It was during that time - the last winter of the war (1944-45) - that Erik Ole Jørgensen began painting with watercolours . After his recovery, he pursued his interest in colours and patterns in his professional life.

Some years later he graduated from the Danish School of Arts (Kunsthåndværkerskolen) in furniture design, but it was textiles that he had a real passion for. Throughout his long, successful career, Erik Ole Jørgensen worked with wood and textiles, using both materials to create products that have become Danish national icons. His simple sofa, originally designed for the Danish organisation FDB, is today a highly sought-after classic. The numerous textiles he designed for the Danish company Kvadrat are still in production - with only minor colour updates based on his own suggestions.

Erik Ole Jørgensen was a modest person. He was never particularly outspoken about his own affairs, but was extremely interested in the different production methods behind furniture-making. His designs remain true to the proud traditions of their craft and are characterised by a sense of authenticity and honesty.

Illness never completely left Erik Ole Jørgensen. But he never let it affect his work, neither professionally nor privately - where his passion was renovating old, run-down houses. Every fourth year or so, when a project was finished, he and his family would move to a new address so he could start renovating again. There are still many houses in Denmark's North Zealand area decorated by Erik Ole Jørgensen.