Iron & clay sculptures
When Erik was 20 years old, in 1960, he created his first workshop in his parents basement, where he built a gas oven with the help of his father, Niels Magnussen. Niels was a gifted engineer who went in new directions in the heat-treatment of steel. Knowledge he would share with his son.
Erik Magnussen was always preoccupied with material and technology, no matter which material he worked in. At the arts and crafts school he and his fellow student Ursula Munch-Petersen vied with each other to make ceramic materials reach their greatest potential.
In the basement workshop he made sculptures and ceramic art which he exhibited and sold at an artists cooperative in central Copenhagen, Den Permanente.