Bruno Mathsson (13 January 190717 August 1988) was a Swedish architect and furniture designer whose ideas aligned with functionalism,
modernism
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
, as well as the Swedish crafts tradition.
Biography
Mathsson was raised in the town of
Värnamo in the
Småland
Småland () is a historical Provinces of Sweden, province () in southern Sweden.
Småland borders Blekinge, Scania, Halland, Västergötland, Östergötland and the island Öland in the Baltic Sea. The name ''Småland'' literally means "small la ...
region of
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
, the son of a master cabinet maker.
After a short time of education in school, he started to work in his father's gallery. He soon found a great interest in furniture and especially chairs, their function and design. In the 1920s and 30s he developed a techniques for building
bentwood chairs with hemp webbing. The first model, called the Grasshopper, was used at Värnamo Hospital in 1931.
, director of the Industrial Design Department at the
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
(MOMA), collected Mathsson's chairs and included them in several exhibitions in the 1940s. Kaufmann considered Mathsson's importance in furniture design on par with that of
Alvar Aalto. Kaufmann and his family also had a Mathsson chair at their house
Fallingwater
Fallingwater is a Historic house museum, house museum in Stewart Township, Pennsylvania, Stewart Township in the Laurel Highlands of Greater Pittsburgh, southwestern Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, i ...
.
Mathsson was also an accomplished architect; he completed about 100 structures in the 1940s and 50s.
He was the first architect in Sweden to build all-glass structures with heated floors. His furniture showroom in Värnamo (1950) was a significant example; it is well-preserved and open to the public today. For his glass houses, he developed double- and triple-pane insulated glass units called "Bruno-Pane".
He traveled extensively in the United States and was strongly influenced by the solar houses of
George Fred Keck. Mathsson's architecture was also influenced by a visit to the
Eames House by
Charles and Ray Eames in March 1949 just as it was being completed.
Works
Furniture
* Grasshopper (1931)
* Mimat (1932)
* Pernilla (1934)
* The Eva Chair (1935)
* Folding table (1935)
* Paris Daybed (1937)
* Swivel chair (1939-1940)
* Pernilla Lounge
* Jetson Chair
* Super-Ellipse™ table series, with
Piet Hein (1966)
* Annika nesting tables (1968)
* The Karin chair (1969)
* Milton Swivel chair (1975)
Architecture
* Bruno Mathsson furniture showroom, Värnamo (1950)
* house at Danderyd (1955)
*
Villa Prenker, Kungsör (1955)
*
Kosta Glassworks exhibition hall and worker's residences (), Kosta (1956)
* weekend cottage at Frösakull (1960)
**"one of the most daring examples of his glass houses."
* Södrakull, outside Värnamo (1965)
References
External links
*
*
*
Bruno Mathsson: Architect and Designer' 2007 exhibition at
Bard Graduate Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathsson, Bruno
1907 births
1988 deaths
Swedish furniture designers
20th-century Swedish architects
Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal
People from Värnamo