Josef Frank Footstools
Austrian, 1885-1967
Austrian architect and furniture and fabric designer Josef Frank was a leading voice for a gentle, humane modernism. His advocacy of warm, comfortable, eclectically styled environments was highly influential in his adopted country of Sweden, and it’s now widely regarded as a harbinger of the backlash against doctrinaire modernism and the embrace of the homespun that occurred in the late 1960s.
The son of a successful Viennese textile manufacturer, Frank studied architecture at Vienna University of Technology, graduating in 1910. From the first years of his practice, he marched counter to the orderly, symmetrical architectural layouts and decors prescribed by contemporaries such as Adolf Loos.
Frank drafted rooms of varying shapes and called for flexible interior-design arrangements. His furniture pieces are light and easy to move — and his chairs are always made of wood, most often with lushly curved steam-bent arms and slatted backs. Frank openly loathed the tubular steel furnishings and “machine for living” aesthetic promoted by Le Corbusier and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and other Bauhaus principals. “The home must not be a mere efficient machine,” Frank once said. “It must offer comfort, rest and coziness…. There are no puritan principles in good interior decoration.”
Frank — who was Jewish — sensed the dire implications of the rise of Nazism in Germany and Austria, and in 1933 he moved to Stockholm with his Swedish wife, Anna. He became the design chief for the furnishings maker Svenskt Tenn and found a perfect match culturally for his brand of simple, relaxed and bright creations. Like many modernists — notably Charles and Ray Eames and Alexander Girard — Frank had a deep love of folk art, which influenced his designs for a wide array of colorful, richly patterned upholstery fabrics, many based on the classic “Tree of Life” motif.
In all his designs, Frank took inspiration from a broad variety of sources. In his furniture, one can discern traces of Asian patterns, Rococo, Italian Renaissance, Scandinavian handicrafts and even Chippendale pieces. As such, the work of Frank — the friendly modernist — is at home in any type of décor.
Find vintage Josef Frank pillows, armchairs, floor lamps and other furniture on 1stDibs.
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Creator: Josef Frank
Josef Frank Bench in Mahogany and Brass Nails, Svenskt Tenn, Sweden
By Svenskt Tenn, Josef Frank
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Josef Frank & SCANDINAVIAN MODERN
A beautiful bench by Josef Frank, for Svenskt Tenn, Sweden, 1960s.
The frame is made of mahogany, upholstered seat with brass nails. The feet are elegantly sculpted and the bench can also be used as a table, end of bed stool...
Category
Mid-20th Century Swedish Scandinavian Modern Josef Frank Footstools
Materials
Fabric, Mahogany
Josef Frank Three Legged Stool
By Josef Frank
Located in St.Petersburg, FL
A charming, three legged stool, Josef Frank for Svenskt Tenn, Sweden.
Category
1940s Swedish Vintage Josef Frank Footstools
Materials
Cherry
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Josef Frank was a true European, he was also a pioneer of what would become classic 20th century Swedish design and the “Scandinavian Design Style”.
Austrian- born Frank started his design career as an architect after having trained at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna between 1903 and 1910. After his training he went on to teach at Kunstgewerbeschule (The Viennese School of Arts and crafts) where he developed and espoused the new school of modernist thinking towards Architecture and Design that was coming to fruition in Vienna at the time. He also went on to lead the Vienna Werkbund throughout the 1920s. This was a truly progressive group of Architects and Designers who set about improving the daily lives of Austrian people through modernist design and architecture in partnership with Arts and Crafts ideals and construction. Frank’s leadership of the Werkbund had already cemented his place at the forefront of European design.
Frank’s time in Vienna was typified by his design for the “Die Wohnung” exhibition of the Deutscher Werkbund in Stuttgart, 1927 where he exhibited along side his contemporaries at the forefront of design, such as the likes of Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. Here he showed a specially designed pair of flat-roofed reinforced concrete houses in what is now seen as a typical modernist style.
What separated Frank’s house from the other 32 houses of the exhibition was the interior and furniture inside the building. It was described as “Neo-Classical” and filled with an eclectic mix of period pieces, modern design and pieces designed by Frank himself that seemed to cross the two worlds. This was a complete opposite direction to that which his fellow Architects were travelling in with their pared back and angular aesthetics. Frank said of his own work: “The house is not a work of art, simply a place where one lives,” and by this reasoning Frank rejected the regimental mechanisation of the living space that his contemporaries believed in, instead he set about creating congenial and spontaneous interiors. Frank’s practice saw him placing the bright colours and the soft forms of nature back into the furnishings and interiors that he thought modernism sorely mist.
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Josef Frank footstools for sale on 1stDibs.
Josef Frank footstools are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of wood and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Josef Frank footstools, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original footstools by Josef Frank were created in the Scandinavian Modern style in sweden during the mid-20th century. Prices for Josef Frank footstools can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $3,843 and can go as high as $4,500, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $4,172.