Biography

Trained as a shipbuilder in Odense

Odense

The city of Odense is the third largest city in Denmark.Odense City has a population of 167,615 and is the main city of the island of Funen...

 on the Danish island of Funen

Funen

Funen , with a size of 2,984 km² , is the third-largest island of Denmark following Zealand and Vendsyssel-Thy, and the 163rd largest island of the world. Funen is located in the central part of the country and has a population of 454,358 inhabitants . The main city is Odense, connected to the...

, Østervig's attachment to wood rather than steel led to his being employed as a furniture designer in E. Knudsen's Studio, among the largest of the times. In 1947, Østervig established his own studio, from where he worked with several of Scandinavia's largest furniture manufacturers. Particularly fond of working with oak, often combined with leather, he designed many special sets of furniture for ships, hotels, cinemas and nursing homes. His distinctive designs aroused widespread international interest, resulting in his work being exhibited in New York's Museum of Modern Art

Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...

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Among his more notable pieces from the 1950s are an elegant but simply styled daybed and a free-standing set of shelves with a bar.