Cooper Hewitt says...
Born in Copenhagen, Jens Risom studied furniture design and worked in the design department of Sweden’s largest department store, Nordiska Kompaniet, before immigrating to the United States in 1939.
Risom became acquainted with Hans Knoll while working for an interior designer and joined Knoll in 1941 to design furniture and oversee fabrication, mainly for commissions by architects and private clients. Determined to expand his business, Knoll assembled Risom’s designs as a featured collection in the company’s first catalog, published in 1942. The product line exhibited the company’s design direction: wood furnishings in a modern idiom. Wartime material shortages did not constrain Risom’s creativity but rather fostered experimentation and resourcefulness: he used material that had been rejected by the government as substandard for military use, but proved quite suitable for residential seating. This can be seen in the use of webbing in place of traditional upholstery on many of Risom’s chairs, and in the use of “regulated” (soft) wood for furniture frames.
