Table de Willem Hendrik Gispen, 1950s

Want to Know More About W.H. Gispen?

W.H. Gispen was a Dutch industrial designer best known for his Giso lamps and functionalist steel-tube furniture. Born in 1890 in Amsterdam, he studied design at the Academy of Visual Arts and Technical Science in Rotterdam as part of the architectural department. In 1915, after only two years, Gispen left school early, partly due to the outbreak of World War One. In 1916 he set up a small smithy, which would eventually develop into the famous Gispen Factory for Metalwork. In 1949, Gispen left the company because of tensions between him and the co-director of the firm W. van Osselen. He began to lecture at the Royal Academy at The Hague, co-founded the Kembo factory and, at the age of seventy-five, began to take etching lessons.

The Many Styles of W.H. Gispen

Gispen’s pieces took inspiration from numerous sources, drawing on De Stijl, Bauhaus, and Constructivism, to name a few. In the early years, Gispen’s designs were reminiscent of the expressionism of the Amsterdamse School and of Art Nouveau. Alongside ornamental wrought-iron work, he began producing items like firesides,Table Lamps , wooden furniture, and Clocks . From 1923 onwards, Gispen was introduced to, and subsequently inspired by, the Bauhaus movement in The Netherlands. At the international exhibition of Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, he received an award for his ornamental iron-work and became aware of Le Corbusier, Constructivism and other French modernists. These influences inspired him to create the Giso lamp and the armchair no. 412. Made with “Scientific Lighting” aesthetic and demands in mind, these lamps are still celebrated today.

W.H. Gispen and His Legacy

In 1916 Gispen purchased his own kiln at the Coolschestraat in Rotterdam, where he started his own workshop in September of that year. It was here where he produced some of his most memorable pieces. His success was in part due to the fact that he was responsible for his own marketing and advertising, as well as opening showrooms in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels and later in London, Paris, and other cities abroad. During the Second World War, metalwork was prohibited outside the war industry, so the factory began to produce parts for aircrafts. In 1920 W.H. Gispen co-founded the architects' circle Opbouw, which created the foundations for Dutch Functionalism. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam organised the first exposition ever dedicated to Gispen in 1981, which focused on his lamp designs from 1916 to 1949. That same year, Gispen died on May 10.

Willem Hendrik (W. H.) Gispen, pionnier néerlandais du fonctionnalisme, est né à Amsterdam en 1890. Avant le déclenchement des hostilités de la Première Guerre Mondiale, il étudie le design au département d’architecture de l’Academy of Visual Arts & Technical Science de Rotterdam. En 1916, il crée son atelier de métal éponyme, consacré aux arts décoratifs ornementaux en fer, en laiton et en bronze. A ses débuts, Gispen fabrique surtout des objets Expressionistes et Art Nouveau.

Dans les années 1920, malgré des rapprochements avec de grands praticiens et théoriciens du modernisme (l’architecte J. J. P. Oud de De Stijl, Hermann Muthesius de Deutscher Werkbund, ou encore l’architecte puriste Le Corbusier), l’entreprise de Gispen s’est davantage tournée vers la production mécanique et les designs rationnels, économiques et minimalistes. Sa lampe géométriquement réduite appelée Giso Light (1926/7) est aujourd’hui considérée comme une des plus grandes icones du design néerlandais. Cette lampe constitue le point culminant de l'entrée de Gispen dans le fonctionnalisme, et a été suivie de près par la première chaise en porte-à-faux en acier tubulaire, inspirée par Mies van der Rohe et Mart Stam. Les départements publicitaires et marketing de Gispen ont également adopté l’esprit avant-gardiste du moment, avec des typographies innovantes, des collages de photos, par le graphiste Paul Schuitema et le photographe Jan Kamman.

Aujourd’hui, Gispen est connue sous le nom de Gispen International BV. Elle reproduit toujours les designs originaux de W. H. Gispen, mais aussi de nouvelles collections de mobilier de bureau. En 1981, le Stedelijk Museum d’Amsterdam organise la première exposition dédiée à Gispen, centrée sur ses designs de lampes de 1916 à 1949. On peut trouver la lampe Giso Model 404 Piano Lamp (1927/28), conçue par Oud et Gispen et fabriquée par l’entreprise Gispen, dans quelques collections de musées, notamment au Cooper-Hewitt et au MoMA de New York, mais aussi au Wolfsonian de Miami.

*Images avec l'aimable autorisation de Gispen