Personatge

Grethe Meyer

n. Svendborg — m. 25-06-2008

Període d'activitat: 1943 — 1988

Classificació geogràfica: Europa > Dinamarca

Moviments socio-culturals

Fites històriques > Entreguerres

Fites històriques > Segona Guerra Mundial

Fites històriques > Postguerra mundial

Edat contemporània > Moviments artístics des de finals del s. XIX > Racionalisme arquitectònic / Moviment modern

Edat contemporània > Feminisme

Grups per àmbit de dedicació

Tecnòlogues > Arquitectes

Tecnòlogues > Dissenyadores d'objectes

Context de creació femenina

Between the years 1925 and 1975, Danish society went through some significant changes, including a change in the role of women.

In 1915 women were given the right to vote and in the coming years, the first generations of women would become graduates in design, a field that was gaining ground in Europe, with the Bauhaus School at the helm. This was a school which took a broad international approach to design and that welcomed the participation of women.

Between 1925 and 1975, women such as Ragna Grubb (Social Housing), Grethe Mayer (Industrial Design), Anne Marie Rubin (Urban Planning) or even the current contemporary architect Lene Tranberg along with others, made an important impact by reshaping everyday living. Between them all they would design and reinvent kitchen spaces, public buildings, housing, landscapes, public areas, and much more.

Their works have reshaped the everyday life of the Danish people, but they went unnoticed.

Ressenya

Grethe Meyer is an architect and one of the most outstanding figures of Danish industrial design, she has won numerous awards for her works.

Her work is both a systematic analysis of daily life and the minute details that it is made up of, such as eating habits and the limitations of space. Grethe Meyer used her knowledge to create products which were not only aesthetically excellent but also practical and functional.

Activitats

Justificacions

Industrial designer whose designs reflect the need to make life easier for the women of her time.
She made it clear that she wanted to produce high quality products that people could afford.
She dedicated her life to seeking out functional and aesthetically simple designs.

Biografia

Born in 1918 in the Danish naval city of Svendborg, Grethe Meyer was the daughter of a lithographer and a pianist. Given that she had inherited both technical and artistic traits from her parents, she studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Copenhagen and was the only woman to graduate from her cohort in 1947. Whilst still a student however, she began her career working as a researcher for “Byggebogen” “The Building Book”, a job she would carry out from 1944 to 1955.

Byggeebogen was a construction book which provided a detailed compilation of observations, measures and knowledge about Danish rational construction techniques and the home decor of the era. This book was what the Danish Royal academy of Fine Arts would base their teachings on for decades to come.

This exhaustive research was eventually used to create the Boligens Byggeskabe Cabinet System, a collaborative project with the architect Børge Mogensen, born out of the need to cover all the aspects of home storage. The unit was described more than once as being the best storage unit of all time.

Grethe Meyer founded her very own design studio (Grethe Meyer Design) in 1960 and her name continues to be closely associated with extremely successful design products including those made by the Royal Copenhagen factory and Georg Jensen. The most famous products she is associated with are: Blåkant (earthenware dinner set), Hvidpot (porcelain dinnerware), Ildpot (stoneware crockery) and Copenhagen (steel cutlery).

Aside from her professional life, Grethe was also a mother, giving birth to Dorthe, her only child, in 1949. The father was architect Bent Salicath, but Grethe decided it best not to marry him, nor any other person for that matter. She renounced what at that point in time was considered a duty for a woman, and instead dedicated her life to the pursuit of a career in a design world ruled chiefly by men.

Her works are characterised by simple and powerful expressions, features which transformed many of her designs into timeless pieces. Grethe Meyer received numerous awards and distinctions for her work and today a variety of her products are exhibited in design museums around the world.

She was a member of the board of The Royal Academy’s Architects Association between 1964 and 1965 and from 1977 to 2002 carried out the same role with the Danish Design Council.

She has received many awards and honours including the Nordic Design and Craft Award in 1973, the Thorvald Bindesbøll medal in 1983, and the prestigious Danish Design Award in 1997 where she said at the ceremony: “design must be uncomplicated, the product easy and comfortable to use and as simple and anonymous as possible. In this way, I think that beauty will present itself…”

Extremely talented and with a sound understanding of the conditions of contemporary life, her work has inspired the newer generations of Danish architects and designers. Grethe Meyer died in 2008 at the age of 90, after a long and successful life dedicated to designing and shaping the lifestyle of the people.

Obres

WORKS

1958 Stub & Stamme glass with the architect Ibi Trier Mørch for Kastrup/ Holmegaard

1959 Glass Works and BB Boligens Byggeskabe modular storage system: a collaboration with Børge Mogensen for CM Madsens Fabrikker

1965 Earthenware Plate Blåkant for The Royal Copenhagen

1972 Porcelain Plate Hvidpot for The Royal Copenhagen

1976 Stoneware Crockery Ildpot with wooden trays for The Royal Copenhagen

1980 Rødtop Crockery, a variation on Blåkant, and porcelain lamps for Royal Copenhagen

1982 Glass into Glass, a series of stackable glasses for Imerco

1991 Copenhagen Cutlery (Iron) for Georg Jensen, Silversmith

1991 Ocean Series of Pots and Bowls (porcelain) for The Royal Copenhagen

1993 Louise Stackable Candleholders in aluminium for The Museum of Louisiana

1998 Concept 4, Dining Table Plate Sets for The Royal Copenhagen

1998 Colorline Textile Series for The Royal Copenhagen

1998 Line Glass for The Royal Copenhagen in Japan

2011 GM Candleholders in iron, 4 and 8 arms, for Georg Jensen, Silversmith

2013 GM 15 and GM 30 hanging copper lamps, produced for Menu

2014 Porcelain Series Hvidpot, relaunched and produced by Coop Denmark

2018 Louise stackable candlesticks in silver, relaunched and produced by Fritz Hansen

2019 Eye & Moon vases in clear glass,made by Fritz Hansen

2019 Stub glasses, relaunched and produced by Holmegaard

2019 Blåkant relaunched in porcelain under the name Blå, produced by Bodum

2020 Relaunch of the Colorline textile series, produced by FDB Møbler

2020 Relaunch of the stoneware series Ildpot, produced by FDB Møbler

AWARDS

1965 Danish Industrial Design Award (ID) for “Blåkant” (Blue Line)

1965 Kay Bojesen Commemorative Award, Silver Medal in the International Ceramic Exhibition of Vicenza

1973 Nordic Art and Design Award

1973 Jablonec Medal in Czechoslovakia

Bibliografia

Grethe Meyer, 01/02/2023

https://www.grethemeyerdesign.dk/

Un dia, una arquitecta, 01/02/2023

https://undiaunaarquitecta.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/grethe-meyer-1918-2008/

University of Copenhague, Woman in Danish architecture: A new history of gender and practice, 01/02/2023

https://ign.ku.dk/english/women-in-danish-architecture/

Modernlink, 01/02/2023

https://modernlink.com/blogs/designers-and-makers/grethe-meyer

Enfocament Didàctic

Design

Architecture

Technology