Kristina Wängberg-Eriksson: Pepis Flora; Josef Frank som mönsterkonstnär

Een boek over de bijzondere en kleurrijke bloemenpatronen en ontwerpen van Josef Frank, Oostenrijker van geboorte, maar een grootsheid in de Zweedse designwereld. Met heel veel fotomateriaal

Austrian architect and designer Josef Frank has had an enormous impact on the history of Swedish design. Despite being nearly 50 years old when emigrating to Sweden, he is now widely recognised as one of the country’s most imortant designers of all time.

Josef Frank 1885 – 1967 grew up in Austria and studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology 1903 – 1908. During the 1920s he worked as an architect, designing municipal housing complexes to amend the shortage of homes in Vienna.

Josef Frank was Jewish, and left Austria in 1933 with his Swedish wife Anna due to the antisemitism in the country. He emigrated to Sweden and was appointed an artistic collaborator role at Svenskt Tenn. Just a few years later, Josef Frank and Estrid Ericson got their first international breakthrough. Exhibiting at the world fairs in Paris in 1937, San Francisco, and New York in 1939, their designs stood out, going starkly against the ideals of the time. Characterised by bold contrasting materials, colours, and prints, the designs by Josef Frank and Estrid Ericson quickly gained international acclaim and recognition. Soon the pair - perhaps paradoxically, would embody the term Swedish Modern.

As the Germans occupied Denmark and Norway in 1940, Josef Frank yet again went into exile and travelled to New York where he lectured at the New School for Social Research on Manhattan. During these years, Josef Frank created many of the print designs which continue to be a part of Svenskt Tenn’s range today. He remained in touch with Estrid Ericsson and as the war ended, he returned to Sweden and Svenskt Tenn.