Cushion for Stool 311 upholstered with Textile Manhattan.
Josef Frank lived and worked in Manhattan, New York from 1941-1946. He found Manhattan’s city plan so interesting in its simplicity, that he created the Manhattan print, which shows a map of the island. In the lower rectangle, one can see the northern tip of Manhattan with the Washington Bridge, the Cloisters and Inwood Hill Park. Josef Frank and his Swedish wife Anna lived here, not far from the most northern part of Broadway.
Designer
Josef Frank
Josef Frank grew up in Vienna and studied architecture at Technische Hochschule (the Vienna University of Technology) in 1903 – 1908. In the 1920s he designed housing estates and large residential blocks built around common courtyards in a Vienna with severe housing shortages. In 1925, he founded the Haus & Garten interior firm together with architect colleague Oskar Wlach. Svenskt Tenn hired Josef Frank in 1934 and just a few years later he and Estrid Ericson made their international breakthrough. Although he was already 50 when he left the burgeoning Nazism in Vienna for Sweden, Frank is considered one of Sweden’s most important designers. Read more