Evert Sodergren (July 19, 1920 – June 8, 2013) was a leading studio furniture maker based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. He taught for many years in the School of Art at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

. Evert Sodergren was born and raised in Seattle. He is a fourth generation woodworker in his family. At age 15, he started working in his father's

furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...

shop and learned the basics of furniture making and cabinetry. After high school he took evening classes in production drafting and worked as a drafter during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1947, when his father returned to

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, Sodergren continued the business on his own. Sodergren was very interested in the modern furniture being made in

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

in the 1940s and 1950s, and turned away from the historical modes his father had followed. Sodergren was influenced by the work of

Hans Wegner Hans Jørgensen Wegner (April 2, 1914 - January 26, 2007) was a Danish furniture designer. His work, along with a concerted effort from several of his manufacturers, contributed to the international popularity of mid-century Danish design. His sty ...

Bruno Mathsson Bruno Mathsson (13 January 190717 August 1988) was a Swedish furniture designer and architect whose ideas aligned with functionalism, modernism, as well as old Swedish crafts tradition. Biography Mathsson was raised in the town of Värnamo in ...

Finn Juhl Finn Juhl (30 January 1912 – 17 May 1989) was a Danish architect, interior and industrial designer, most known for his furniture design. He was one of the leading figures in the creation of Danish design in the 1940s and he was the designe ...

, and George Nelson. In the 1950s his work began to be exhibited in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

and then across the United States. Sodergren joined the faculty of the School of Art at the

in 1951, and taught furniture for nearly 30 years. Sodergren's influence and example helped shape the studio furniture movement in the Pacific Northwest. He was an early participant in the development of Seattle's Northwest Gallery of Fine Woodworking (which continues today as Northwest Woodworkers Gallery).

External links

Evert Sodergren at Northwest Woodworkers Gallery

Evert Sodergren video on Seattle Channel

The Seattle Times Obituary
1920 births 2013 deaths American woodworkers American furniture designers American furniture makers Pacific Northwest artists Artists from Seattle Educators from Seattle University of Washington faculty {{Woodworking-stub

Further reading

External links