A primitive of Scandinavian Modern? inquiring into the work of Danish designer Knud V. Engelhardt (1882-1931)

In the web of publications, exhibitions etc. that outlines a Danish design history, Knud V.
Engelhardt (1882-1931) takes up a paradoxical position: proclaimed a pioneer, who turned aside
historicism and partly the national romanticism of ‘Skønvirke’, his work is said to inhabit a
simplicity of a ‘sober’, ‘rational’ and ‘timeless’ kind that anticipated functionalism and later ideals
of Scandinavian Modern. In 2006 his life work, including home interiors, a vast production of
graphic design, job printing, posters and typography, a public tram and a summerhouse in Skagen,
was enrolled on the Cultural Canon; in this politically initiated context his “tight functionality and
soft humanism” was regarded as “characteristic of Scandinavian Modern, the style that Denmark
would later become so famous for”. Further, the sparse records and modest research carried out on
Engelhardt’s work, are often of a repetitive kind, kept within frames of national influences,
historical –isms, and have imposed celebratory post war concepts on his prewar design.
With an aim to examine the cogent and peculiar artistic power of Engelhardt’s work, particularly in
regard to graphic design, I argue that the above mentioned concepts have, on the other hand, and to
a great extent overshadowed the varied as well as the international disposed and professional
independent contribution he paid to the field early in the 20th century. Further, notions of ‘primitive’
tendencies that led to a more ‘mature’ functionalism have narrowed the investigations of a design
legacy imbued with preferences for the modern ephemeral, urban, and the most common and
bashful objects of everyday life. Rather, Engelhardt’s work opens to international currents and
marks a clear understanding of the pivotal role to be played by the graphic designer in modern
times.