PREBEN FABRICIUS (Denmark, 1931 - 1984) for KNOLL. 'Conversation chairs', model 710. Designed in 1972. Dark chrome-plated steel frame, loose cushions upholstered in black leather. Armrests with leather accents. Interior upholstery with logo. Made in Walter Knoll, with manufacturer's labels. Measurements: 78 x 72 x 78 cm. Seat height 42 cm. Small marks of use. Preben Juul Fabricius trained as a cabinetmaker with master carpenter Niels Vodder and also studied at the School of Interior Design with Finn Juhl in the mid-1950s. There he also met cabinetmaker Jørgen Kastholm, who would later become his long-time partner. The two shared a common vision of furniture design, based on minimalism and quality and inspired by the creations of Charles Eames and Mies van der Rohe. They were looking for an ideal that was timeless in its simplicity. In 1961 they set up a studio together in Gentofte, and four years later they presented their first designs at the Fredericia furniture fair, where they attracted the attention of the German furniture manufacturer Alfred Kill. The latter offered them a lucrative contract that allowed them to work freely, so Kastholm and Fabricius moved to Stuttgart with their first designs to start production in Kill's factory. Soon after, they made the international breakthrough at the 1966 Cologne fair, where they showed a complete series of home and office furniture developed from ten of their original designs. The two designers worked together between 1961 and 1968, a seven-year period in which they produced numerous designs that are now considered classics, such as the FK 6725 Tulip Chair, the FK 87 Grasshopper and the Scimitar. During this period, their furniture was also part of important international exhibitions, held at such prominent centers as the MOMA in New York (1967) and the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris (1967). Today, Kastholm and Fabricius' designs can be seen at the MACBA in Barcelona, the MOMA in New York, the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Ringling Museum in Florida, the Art Museum in Brasilia, the Design Center in Stuttgart, the Haus Industriform in Essen, the Neue Sammlung in Munich, the Staatsgemäldesammlung Bayer in Munich, the Kunstindustrimuseum in Berlin, the Kunststofmuseum in Düsseldorf, the World Import Mart Museum and the History + Folkways Museum in Japan and the Museum für Angewandte Kunstgeschichte in Cologne.