Modern Print Monday: Josef Frank

Josef Frank, Green Birds, 1944

Josef Frank (1885-1967), Sweden

Born an Austrian Jew, Frank was an architect and designer. At the rise of Hitler, Frank and his Swedish wife fled to Stockholm in 1933, where he began a long collaboration with Estrid Ericson in her Stockholm shop Svenskt Tenn. During World War II he moved temporarily to New York, where he taught at the New School from 1943 to 1945.

He was known for his colorful textiles,

Josef Frank, Vegetable Tree

and fanciful florals.

Svenskt Tenn continues to sell Frank designs today.

http://www.svenskttenn.se/sv-se/products/0118/textiler.aspx

Aramal is a 1940s design that was not produced

until recently.

Fans of William Morris will see his influence in Frank's work.

His Mille Fleurs (thousand flowers) style echoes Morris's 1864 wallpaper "Daisy,"

which itself was inspired by Medieval tapestries.