Poul Henningsen

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Creating the three-shade lamp system

After the Paris exhibit, Louis Poulsen and Henningsen were awarded a contract to provide lighting for the newly constructed Forum building in Copenhagen. The building was planned to house an international car exhibition. Rather than using beam lighting, which would illuminate the cars' roofs and hoods but leave the sides of the vehicles dark, Henningsen iterated on the Paris Lamp design to create a lamp that would channel the light in oblique paths.

The Forum lamp had three shades, with diameter proportions of the shades following a 4:2:1 ratio. This ratio allowed the upper shade to reflect 50% of the light and the middle shade and bottom shade to reflect 25% each. The lamp Henningsen created for Forum would be the basis for the three-shade system. The design was subsequently developed into a comprehensive system of lamps of different sizes, colors, materials, types (floor lamps, table lamps and chandeliers).

During 1926–27, the Forum lamp design was converted into the rational three-shade system (Danish: 3-skærmssystemet) that could accommodate many different needs. The top, middle, and bottom shades corresponded to the proportions of an approximately 3:2:1 ratio (where the top shade was three-times larger than the bottom shade). (The exception was the largest lamp with 85 cm top shade, which used the 4:2:1 proportions). The first line of lamps were made available in five sizes. The lamps sizes in the system were given rational name scheme: 8/8, 6/6, 5/5, 4/4, and 3/3. The first number in the fraction represents the approximate diameter of the top shade in decimeters. The second number indicates the decimeter used to create the middle and bottom shades using the 3:2:1 ratio. For example: A PH 5/5 lamp has a 50 cm top shade, a 31 cm middle shade (around 2/3 of 50), and a 16.5 cm bottom shade (around 1/3 of 50).

The original models (with matching top and bottom fractions) worked well as ceiling lamps but they weren't suited for low-hanging use, like over a table, where the illumination area was too narrow and intense. To address this, Louis Poulsen released lamps in 1927 with larger top shade proportions. These wider lamps, like the PH 4/3 and PH 6/3, had a top shade from a larger model and a middle and bottom shade set from a smaller model. For example, a PH 4/3 lamp has a 40 cm top shade but a middle shade (20 cm) and a bottom shade (11.2 cm) created using the 3:2:1 proportions of a 30 cm top shade.

The lamps were commercially successful and the royalties created the financial safety net for Henningsen to focus on his literary work.

Literary career

During the 1920s Poul Henningsen had his literary breakthrough. He edited the polemic left-wing periodical, Kritisk Revy (1926–1928, "Critical Review"), in which he and his colleagues scorned old-fashioned style and cultural conservatism, linking these themes to politics. At the same time he began as a revue writer praising natural behaviour, sexual broad-mindedness, and simple living. He made the Danish revues a political weapon of the left-wing without giving up its character of entertainment (the so-called PH-revues 1929–32).

Henningsen created the PH Grand Piano (Danish: PH Flyglet) in 1930. Poul Henningsen did a groundbreaking design with the PH Grand Piano that is characterised by the transparent glass-lid, the leather rim and the steel legs. The PH Grand Piano departures significantly from the traditional grand piano or the "black box". Poul Henningsen wanted to open up the piano and bring out the beauty of the musical parts. It has become a Danish design icon and reflects an important contribution to the Bauhaus design tradition.

In 1933, he edited his most famous work What About Culture? (Danish: Hvad med Kulturen? ), a polemic, audacious, and urgent criticism of Danish cultural life and its snobism and passion of the past in spite of all the efforts of the Modern Break-Through. He tried to make parallels between prudery, moralizing, and fascist leanings. He also accused the Social Democrats of lacking a firm and consequent cultural line. Together with this book, his activities as a whole brought him a reputation as a semi-communist "fellow traveller". During this period, in fact, he stood near the communists without joining them. He took part in the anti-fascist propaganda, always trying to connect culture and politics.

Among his other initiatives of this period was Danmarksfilmen (1935), (English: The Film of Denmark), also known as PH's Danmarksfilm. It is an unpretentious and untraditional film portraying life in contemporary Denmark in a lively and slightly disrespectful way in which the visuals are supported by jazz rhythms. Initially, it was condemned and decried by most critics, but later on it became rehabilitated as one of the classic Danish documentary films. He also wrote some movie manuscripts.

Death and legacy

In 1963, Henningsen was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and struggled with difficulty speaking, tremors, and depression. He began to be viewed as a "Rasmus Modsat" (Danish equivalent to a Mary Quite Contrary) within Danish culture and struggled to get published in Danish newspapers in the last years of his life. Henningsen died on 31 January 1967. He was buried in Bispebjerg Cemetery in a common grave.

In the time since his death, his contrarian cultural critiques began to have had their breakthrough and his views had become popular and met with acceptance and recognition in much larger circles. The PH Prize was established in memory of Poul Henningsen. The prize is awarded to people or institutions that have promoted ideas for which PH fought. There have been efforts underway to create a permanent space to exhibit Henningsen's work. In 2000, a group started making plans to create a permanent exhibition space for 300 of Poul Henningsen's lamps and a cabaret theater in Kødbyen in Copenhagen. A scaled down cafe and music venue eventually open under the name PH Café (Danish: PH Caféen) but has since closed. In 2010, plans were drafted to create a museum in Vejen dedicated to Poul Henningsen work and to showcase the Louis Poulsen's archive of PH's lamps (valued at DKK 30 million) but the project has not materialized in the intervening time.

PH lamps continue to remain popular, especially in Denmark. The PH lamp shade system was selected into the Danish Culture Canon, where jury committee called it "the symbol of Danishness and good taste" and responsible for Denmark's position "at the forefront of lighting for many years."

Two songs that Henningsen wrote are also included Danish Culture Canon under the 12 Selected Songs by Kai Normann Andersen entry: They tie us down mouth and hand [Man binder os på mund og hånd] and In your short life [I dit korte liv] The songs were also added to the Højskolesangbogen. In 2004, the hip-hop group Outlandish covered Man binder os på mund og hånd. While Henningsen wrote the song to critique the Nazi oppression, the song takes on a contemporary relevance when interpreted with the band's outspoken activism against the Danish government restrictive immigration policies.

In 2018, Danish designers Joakim Zacho Weylandt and Søren Peter Kristensen recreated Henningsen's Slotsholm Lamp using modern means and are seeking support to have they installed along the Christiansborg Slotsplads canal, where the original street lamps once stood.

For the 125 year anniversary of PH's birth, Tivoli opened the "Poul Henningsen in Tivoli" exhibition in 2019 to showcase Henningsen's lamps and his creations in the role head architect at Tivoli.

Poul Henningsens Plads in Copenhagen is named in his honour.

Poul Henningsen

Poul Henningsen

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Biography

Early life and education

Early career

Creating the three-shade lamp system

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Creating PH's House

Fleeing Nazism

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Death and legacy

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