Greta Magnusson Grossman
10.02.2010 - 16.05.2010
Arkitekturmuseet,Exercisplan and Slupskjulsplan, Skeppsholmen, Stockholm , Sweden
The exhibition also includes exemplary pieces of furniture and lighting, prototypes and textiles, original drawings and photographs, film clips as well as a 1:1 reconstruction of an interior.The exhibition is produced in collaboration with R20th Century Gallery, New York.In the late 1920s Grossman finished a oneyear woodworking apprenticeship in her hometown of Helsingborg, Sweden and was awarded a scholarship to enroll at Konstfack , the renowned Stockholm arts institution. At Konstfack she excelled in her mastery of technical drawing and focused her original design work on furniture, textiles and ceramics. In 1933 Grossman received second place for furniture design from the Stockholm Craft Association , becoming the first woman to receive an award in that category. In 1934 the Swedish Society of Industrial Design awarded her a scholarship to travel throughout Europe and she filed reports of her observations on interior design and architecture for the Women and Home section of the Swedish paper Nya Dagligt Allehanda.In 1933 Grossman and Konstfack classmate Erik Ullrich opened Studio, a store and workshop, at Sturegatan 12 in Stockholm.
From Studio, Grossman took on numerous commissions designing unique furniture and interiors, garnered abundant press attention and accolades and exhibited frequently at Galerie Moderne, a cultural mecca in Stockholm at the time.The unique approach to Swedish modernism that she brought with her when she moved from Stockholm in 1940 proved to be incredibly popular in the United States. She opened a muchpublicized shop in Beverly Hills in 1940 selling her own designs billed on her business card as Swedish modern furniture, rugs, lamps and other home furnishings. She attracted celebrity clients such as Greta Garbo, Joan Fontaine and Gracie Allen and began making connections that would lead to a number of projects both from her own shop and from Barker Brothers Modern Shop launched in 1947, for whom she was designing exclusive pieces and taking interior design commissions.Over the next twenty years she produced work for companies like Glenn of California, Sherman Bertram, Martin/Brattrud and Modern Line. The work for Glenn of California is arguably her most sophisticated and best known. These pieces were characterized by the materials she used, such as rich, colorful textiles and woods like California walnut paired in surprising and elegant combination with black plastic laminate and wrought iron. The uniquely petite proportions and asymmetrical lines of her furniture also set her work apart.Grossmans most enduring work in Los Angeles came in the form of her built architectural commissions. Between 1949 and 1959 Grossman designed at least fourteen homes in Los Angeles, one in San Francisco and one back in her native Sweden. Of these, at least ten are still standing. The homes were often perched on stilts at the top of a hill, overlooking a canyon, with magnificent views through curtain walls of glass. The homes featured extensive builtin shelving and the uniquely open and free flowing floor plan popular at the time. She worked several times with celebrated landscape architect Garrett Eckbo on the outdoor spaces. Grossmans houses are designed to the diminutive scale of the Los Angeles based Case Study House program most of them have a footprint of less than 1,500 square feet (ca 140 square meters). |
February 2010
