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Yrjö Kukkapuro, a renowned Finnish designer whose postmodern style of chairs graced waiting rooms, offices and living rooms across Finland as well as collections in the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, has died aged 91.
Kukkapuro died on Saturday at his home outside Helsinki, his daughter, Isa Kukkapuro-Enbom, confirmed in an email on Sunday, as well as in a statement from Studio Kukkapuro, where she is the curator. The cause of death was not disclosed.
“Almost every Finn has sat on a chair he designed – at a metro station, in a bank, at school, or in a library,” the studio said in a news release. “Yrjö Kukkapuro never stopped designing and coming up with new ideas. Until the very end, he pondered a concept of his new chair, the plan of which was clear in his mind. His assistant didn’t have time to make drawings of the chair.”
In a career spanning more than 70 years, Kukkapuro’s chairs were lauded for their comfort, functionalism and ergonomics as well as their design, and featured names like Ateljee, Karuselli-chair, Long Chair and, his most famous, the Experiment.
Designed in 1982, the Experiment chair was considered avant-garde but ultimately became commercially successful and was seen as a key turning point for the postmodern style of furniture. The Experiment includes decorative, wavy armrests in bright colors, an upholstered back and bottom, and a signature angled seat – despite the frame being flat on the ground.
Although initial production ceased in the 1990s, the European furniture design brand Hem sought permission from Kukkapuro in 2021 to reproduce it with minor adjustments to the scale and construction.
“We are saddened by the news of Yrjö’s passing, and our thoughts are with his family,” said Hem’s founder and chief executive, Petrus Palmér. “He was a furniture design trailblazer, and showed us that a non-conformist approach is the only way to achieve a lasting legacy.”
The Experiment chair retailed for up to €2,399 ($2,479) on Hem’s website Sunday, where a description called it “timeless, bold, and as compelling today as the day it was created”.
“In the Experiment Chair, Kukkapuro sought to add art to Functionalism, to satisfy romantic tastes alongside meeting essential needs,” the description reads. “The result is startling, authentic, a hero of 20th-century design.”
Kukkapuro designed his family’s studio and home to feature a wave-shaped roof and floor-to-ceiling glass windows. Built in the late 1960s for him and his wife, the artist Irmeli Kukkapuro, who died in 2022, it’s scheduled to become a museum next year.
