Svenskt Tenn opens pop-up store in Vienna

Austrian-born architect and designer Josef Frank made some 2,000 furniture sketches and designed 200 textile prints during his many years with Svenskt Tenn. His designs will now be displayed in a temporary store in his hometown Vienna, alongside other pieces from Svenskt Tenn’s range. Later this fall, the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna, MAK, will open an exhibition presenting the major works of Josef Frank.

“This goes to show the timelessness of Josef Frank’s designs,” says Thommy Bindefeld, marketing director at Svenskt Tenn. “His furniture and textiles still fit well into the modern home of today, and they are still being produced and sold by Svenskt Tenn. Therefore it is natural for us to be present in Vienna during MAK’s Frank exhibition.”

Josef Frank was born in Baden near Vienna in 1885. As a young man, he was a one of the front figures of the early Vienna Modernism. Josef Frank represented a free and artistic style ideal, and he developed his own kind of modernism based on values such as comfort, homeliness and a wealth of colour. In 1933, as the threat from the emerging Nazism in Europe was growing, Josef Frank came to Sweden with his Swedish wife Anna, at the invitation of Svenskt Tenn’s founder Estrid Ericson. Their collaboration became lifelong.

“The interior design philosophy that Josef Frank and Estrid Ericson developed together is as relevant today as it was in the 1930s,” says Thommy Bindefeld. “There is a great interest in Josef Frank’s designs internationally and especially in Austria, and we are truly delighted to present his work in Vienna.”

The temporary Svenskt Tenn store will be open from November 25 through February 13, 2016 at Volksbank Operngasse 8 in Vienna.