Jens Harald Quistgaard (1919-2008) born in Copenhagen, was a Danish sculptor and designer. Quistgaard showed considerable artistic talent from an early age, often crafting his own work from wood, metal, ceramic, and glass. He was initially trained by his father, sculptor, Harald Erik Einar Quistgaard, subsequently serving an apprenticeship with silversmith Georg Jensen (1866-1935).
His best known and most commercially successful works were produced by Dansk Designs, an American manufacturer whose name is the Danish word for “Danish” itself. Dansk Designs brought Quistgaard and his reductionist Nordic design aesthetic to the United States, where the pair were instrumental in the creation of an American awareness and appreciation of Danish Modern design.
During his time at Dansk Designs, a period that lasted until the 1980s, Quistgaard designed more than 4,000 products from his studio in Copenhagen, which spanned tableware , kitchenware and home furnishings in a range of materials including brass, cast iron, copper, enameled steel in bright colors, exotic woods, glass, hand-crafted steel, silver, staved teak, and stoneware.
Over the course of his career, Quistgaard received many awards including the Lunning Prize in 1954, The Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion in 1958, and Munch’s Der goldene Löffel in 1962. His work has been exhibited at museums around the world such as the Danish Museum of Art and Design in Copenhagen, The Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the National Museum in Stockholm, the The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Louvre in Paris, and the Das Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin among others.
