Hvadhem (Gotland), 1919 - Markaryd, 2009
Even though he is less renown than some iconic figures of the Scandinavian design of the 1950’s and 1970’s, Hans-Agne Jakobsson remains a brilliant decorator and furniture conceptor, and the direct heir of Poul Henningsen or Alvar Aalto.
During his youth, he learnt the job of carpenter in his natal island of Gotland, and studied architecture in Gothenburg where he got his degree. He was then employed by General Motors and soon by the designers Malmsten and Werner West, where he perfected his mastering of furniture conception.
In 1951, Jakobsson founded his own enterprise in Markaryd, Hans-Agne Jakobsson AB (HAJAB), which first lightings were produced and fabricated in partnership with the Ellysett AB factory. While he had become an expert in the art of lights, Jakobsson always tried to follow the requirement of a diffuse lighting, often indirect, and to hide the bulbs in his pieces. Like the pioneers of the Scandinavian design, he chose an aesthetic of great purification and the recurring use of materials such as brass, iron, glass or wood chips, cleverly deployed in original creations.
From the end of the 1950’s, he reached an international reputation, which was redoubled in the beginning of the 1970’s thanks to an edition by IKEA of one of Jakobsson’s suspensions made in wood chips.