Josef Frank, Austrian architect, Jew, immigrant to Sweden, is one
of the most prominent and also most controversial representatives of Swedish
modernism. The exhibition in the Felleshus of the Nordic Embassies, “BEWARE OF
GOOD TASTE! Design of Josef Frank, Architect and Outsider”, shows the life work
of Frank, whose stays in Germany
– especially in Berlin
– had far-reaching consequences for his creative work.
Berlin,
1909:
Frank worked with the architect Bruno Möhring and
during this period also met his future wife Anna Sebenius. In Germany he received his first big contract – to
furnish the East Asian Museum in Cologne
in 1912. He belonged to the young Viennese avant-garde who especially in the
years following 1910 attracted international attention with their architecture,
interior design and designs for furniture, textiles and lamps.
At the World Exposition in Paris 1925 he designed the competition entry
of the Austrian company “Haus und Garten“. As sole Austrian, Josef Frank
contributed to the exhibition “Die Wohnung“ 1927 in Stuttgart – and had a
falling out with Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe, whose views on home design
he did not share.
In the beginning of the 1930s, when the climate of
mounting anti-Semitism became too much for Anna Frank, she persuaded her
husband to enter a cooperation with Estrid Ericson and her company Svenskt Tenn.
In 1933 the Franks moved from Vienna to Stockholm, and Josef
Frank continued the fruitful collaboration until his death in 1967.
Josef Frank is still today considered one of the
leading designers of Svenskt
Tenn, and international interest
in him has even increased in recent decades. In particular, the younger
generation interested in design has discovered the quality inherent in Frank’s
inexhaustible creativity. One of the rediscoverers of Frank was the
English-language design magazine “Wallpaper“ in the late 1990s. Josef Frank was
an intellectual modernist who objected to all forms of conformity – and not
least in the aesthetic design of the home ambience.
The exhibition has been made possible through the
cooperation of the Swedish Embassy Berlin, the
Jewish Museum Stockholm and Svenskt Tenn, Stockholm, with kind
support by Galerie Jacksons (Berlin)
and SKF Lubrication Solutions.
Exhibition venue: Felleshus/Pan Nordic Building of the
Nordic Embassies, Rauchstr. 1, 10787 Berlin-Tiergarten
Exhibition dates: 20 August – 20 September 2008.
Symposium 6 September 2008 in the Felleshus / Pan Nordic Building of the
Nordic Embassies
