Danish Black Leather Armchair 431 by Arne Vodder for Sibast, 1960s

Arne Vodder was born in Denmark in 1926. Trained as a cabinetmaker and architect, he studied under Finn Juhl at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, graduating in 1947. After school, he worked as a designer at Hindsgaul in Copenhagen, focusing primarily on office décor. In 1950, Vodder launched his own architecture and design studio with architect Anton Borg. Over the years, the studio moved to a few locations within Copenhagen before ultimately settling in the suburb of Holte, north of the city. Together, the two designed furniture as well as several low-cost houses. Vodder and Borg collaborated until the 1970s.

Vodder is best known for his furniture designs, which tended to be simple pieces composed of natural materials such as rosewood and teak, often inspired by the natural forms, and occasionally accented with colorful panels. Vodder worked with several respected brands throughout his career, designing cabinetry, tables, seating, and more for furniture makers Fritz Hanson, France & Søn, Nielaus, Sibast, Kircodan (for which he designed garden furniture), as well as the department store Havemanns Magasin A/S (for which he designed the interiors), among others.

While Vodder is less well known today than some of his contemporaries, his work was well received throughout his lifetime. In fact, between the 1950s and ’70s, Vodder’s furniture designs were used by President Jimmy Carter in the White House and President Anwar Sadat in Cairo, and were also included in the United Nations Office in Geneva, as well as in a number of hotels, banks, and embassies worldwide. His work was exhibited widely both individually and in group exhibitions with the likes of Verner Panton and Nanna Ditzel.

Vodder passed away in 2009.

Danish furniture manufacturer Sibast began in 1908 when cabinetmaker Peder Olsen Sibast opened a woodworking atelier on Denmark’s island of Funen.  The family-owned company steadily expanded throughout the first half of the 20th century. In 1943, Sibast’s children, Emma, Ole, and Helge, took the reins, and together they carried Sibast to international acclaim. According to Anna Sibast, great-granddaughter-in-law of the company’s founder, “Emma was in administration, taking care of the finances and the employees’ wellbeing. Ole played a big role in selling, for example, to Hilton Hotels and the White House, to name a few. And Helge was the driving force in the design and production side of the business.” In the postwar era, Sibast became one of Denmark’s largest producers of fine wood chairs, tables, and sideboards, celebrated for high quality craftsmanship and modernist silhouettes.

Helge Sibast apprenticed under his father and was responsible for a many of the company’s most successful designs, including No. 7 Chair and No. 8 Chair (both 1953). He also commissioned a number of top Danish designers of the day, like Grete Jalk, to develop Sibast lines. Arne Vodder, in particular, collaborated with Sibast frequently between the 1950s and ‘70s. Notably, in 1957, Vodder was awarded first prize at the X Triennale di Milano for his No. 29A Sideboard for Sibast.

The taste for Danish modern furniture waned by the 1980s, and Sibast declined. In 1984, the Sibast family sold the business—a year before Helge passed away—but wisely retained the copyright to many of its most popular designs.  In 2012, the fourth Sibast generation, Ditlev and his wife Anna, revived the company, which today produces a few of the most iconic Sibast designs from the midcentury, along with a few new ones that carry on the same spirit. 

* All images courtesy of Sibast Furniture.