I was cruising Craigslist yesterday and found a black and white wall plaque that caught my eye. It was decorated with a simple, modern-looking graphic design and a short poem. The date on the back was 1954, and the piece was attributed to Piet Hein (1905-1996).
I did some research on Hein and found that he was born in Denmark and was a designer, a mathematician, a philosopher, a scientist, a game designer and a writer. The poem on the plaque is called a "grook" (gruk in Danish), which is a type of short verse, of Hein's invention, that is characterized by irony, paradox, precise use of language, sophisticated rhythms and rhymes, revealing as succinctly as possible something basic truth about the human condition.
Hein wrote over 10,000 grooks, published in over 60 books. Royal Copenhagen created the Hein wall plaques for a number of years. They are apparently still very collectible.
From archimedes-lab.org
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| etsy.com (fifthseason) Mind these three: T.T.T.! Hear their chime. Things Take Time.
Piet Hein
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| ecrater.com There is one art no more, no less: to do all things with art- lessness.
Piet Hein
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| replacementslimited.com Love while you've got love to give. Live while you've got life to live.
Piet Hein
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Here is the one I found on Craigslist. I've made arrangements to pick it up today.
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| replacementslimited.com Living is a thing you do now or never-- which do you?
Piet Hein
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Have never seen those! Now they are in my brain and maybe one day will have to have one on the shelf! Thanks for showing them off.
ReplyDeleteI love those, especially the one that you bought. What a lovely grook.
ReplyDeletethats something new to me....never saw these before..another one to look out for..:)
ReplyDeleteI found one recently in a thrift. I remember reading a book with some instructions on how to behave...remember enjoying them. If I remember correctly, he wrote very tongue in cheek when the Nazis were around to keep up spirits and to be subversive in a joking, lighthearted manner.
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