Paul T. Frankl (October 14, 1886 – March 21, 1958), an

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

furniture designer and maker, architect, painter and writer from

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, Austria, was the son of a wealthy real estate speculator.

Biography

After Frankl completed his architectural studies at the Berlin Polytechnic, he traveled, spending time in Berlin and

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

before arriving in the United States in April 1914. He settled in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and brought with him an outsider's fresh perspective and an enthusiasm for forging a uniquely American design aesthetic. Frankl began as an architect and later switched to designing and painting fine art and furniture. In the years between the two world wars he, more than any other designer, helped shape the distinctive look of American modernism. In the 1920s, he introduced his celebrated skyscraper style (before turning to metal furnishings in the 1930s). Frankl opened Frankl Galleries on 48th Street, calling his company Skyscraper Furniture, which became an epicenter of American modernism, including modern textiles and wallpapers imported from Europe. His solo art shows included New York City's Knoedler Gallery in 1931 and Los Angeles's Stendahl Gallery in 1944. After he later relocated to Los Angeles and opened a gallery on

Rodeo Drive Rodeo Drive is a street in Beverly Hills, California, with its southern segment in the City of Los Angeles. Its southern terminus is at Beverwil Drive, and its northern terminus is at its intersection with Sunset Boulevard in Beverly Hills. The ...

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. ...

, celebrities such as

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history. Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...

Cary Grant Cary Grant (born Archibald Alec Leach; January 18, 1904November 29, 1986) was an English-American actor. He was known for his Mid-Atlantic accent, debonair demeanor, light-hearted approach to acting, and sense of comic timing. He was one o ...

, Katharine Hepburn,

Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, C ...

and Alfred Hitchcock became clients. Frankl wrote several books and magazine articles about the Modern Style and was its most vocal proponent. He established the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen (AUDAC) in 1928. He later designed production pieces for Brown Saltman of California and Johnson Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, incorporating an early use of biomorphic designs and novel materials such as cork veneer. His style continuously evolved, from early skyscraper furniture to relaxed and casual designs favored by the Hollywood elite in the 1930s to manufactured pieces for the mass market in the 1950s. In 1934 he moved to Los Angeles where he taught at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

and the

Chouinard Art Institute The Chouinard Art Institute was a professional art school founded in 1921 by Nelbert Murphy Chouinard (1879–1969) in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. In 1961, Walt and Roy Disney guided the merger of the Chouinard Art I ...

. Used, out-of-print books he authored sell for hundreds of dollars in online bookstores. His daughter, Paulette Frankl, is an artist, author and photographer, and his grandson, Nicholas Koenig, is a creative director for theme parks and interactive games.

Books

*
New Dimensions: the Decorative Arts of Today in Words and Pictures
', 1928. * ''Form and Re-form: A Practical Handbook of Modern Interiors'', 1930 (reprint 1975). *''Machine-made leisure'', 1932. *''Space for living: Creative interior decoration and design'', 1938. *''Principios fundamentales de la historia de la arquitectura, Leipzig y Berlín'', 1914.

Collections

Brooklyn museum of art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Cro ...

. *

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and wa ...

. * Art Institute of Chicago. *

Milwaukee Art Museum The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art. Location and Visit Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museu ...

. * Philadelphia Museum of Art. *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

.Metmuseum.org
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References

External links

Long, Christopher (May 2007), ''Paul T. Frankl and Modern American Design''

Hughes, Edan, ''Artists in California, 1786-1940'' (June 1989)

''American Art Annual 1933''

''Who's Who in American Art 1936-56''

''AskArt listing''

''Studies in the Decorative Arts'' (spring/summer 2002)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Frankl, Paul T. 1886 births 1958 deaths 20th-century American architects American furniture designers Austrian architects Austrian furniture designers Art Deco Art Deco designers American people of Austrian descent Artists from Vienna Modernist architects Emigrants from Austria-Hungary to the United States