Åke Axelsson

GUSTAV (1994)

The Gustav chairs are a collection of prima donnas. The backrests extend far out to the sides and flare upwards like Picasso's bull horns or Chinese temple roofs. With their exaggerated backs, the chairs appear to have been built as props for a theatre play or designed for a comic strip. Gustav 3 features a back made of laminated veneer that almost threatens to tip over. Such drama and instability are unusual in Axelsson's work. The chairs carry a 1980s vibe in their grand gestures and self-assertion. "I was a bit more imaginative at the time, dared more and probably wanted to show that I could be extravagant too," Åke says today, slightly amazed and a bit giggly about the series. The starting point was, after all, functionality. The seats' foundation with a hard rubber fitting provides nice springiness, but the backs are the collection's exclamation marks, like the Danish folk chairs, but expressed in an exaggerated form. What was the idea behind the posing backs? Did Åke want to shout out loud to draw interest and eyes to his newly started Gallery Stolen? Did he want to test the limits of materials and construction? Was it the grand spirit of the times that had lured him onto the catwalk of furniture effects?

The collection was displayed at Åke Axelsson's exhibition 39 Chairs at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1995. The catalogue features a wooden profile from the frame of the Century chair glued to the cover, precisely where the hands first measure and read the chair. Ulf Hård af Segerstad writes in the foreword about "Chairs as Architecture" and places Åke's furniture in the category of architectural furniture art, furniture that integrates into the whole and seeks harmony rather than expression. The understated and sleek are emphasized. af Segerstad calls Åke an "expression reductionist," a classicist, sparing with effects, "a corrective against excesses and the rush for novelty." Despite this, the catalogue opens impressively with Gustav No. 3, the most dramatic of the chairs. The others were also shown in the catalogue. Despite the launch at the exhibition, no production ensued. Åke grew tired of the Gustav collection, perhaps it was not quite honest and usable. The expressive style of the 1980s was broken by the recession in the early 1990s.

• Eklund, Petter, The Sustainable Form: Åke Axelsson, Carlsson Publishing House, Stockholm, 2019