The first Piasa sale of 2016 will focus on Josef Frank, with 54 out of 200 pieces dedicated to the designer, whose work marked Swedish Modernism.The Paris auction of Scandinavian design will take place on February 17.The event will include objects and items of furniture, featuring warm timbers like mahogany, with sober yet luxurious details. Notable lots include a Fatima cabinet from 1937, wrapped in floral tissue (estimated at €60,000 to €80,000), a Model 2237 cabinet in mahogany, burl wood and brass (€ 15,000-20,000), and a Model 2077 tall cabinet in walnut, glass, and brass (€ 8,000-12,000), all created for Svenskt Tenn.“There is nothing puritanical about good interior design”, the architect and designer once wrote. An interior “should offer relaxation and comfort...”Opposed equally to the idea of “total design” and to cheap mass industrial production, he advocated a “gentle,” middle-ground early Modernism in design. While his mild, undoctrinaire approach, more focused on quality of the product than on a manifesto of design, did not put him at the center of design history, his work has recently undergone reappraisal, with MAK in Vienna staging a retrospective.The Austrian-born Frank spent most of his working life in Sweden, working as the chief designer for the home furnishings company Svenskt Tenn. His colorful, cheerful work, influenced by Swedish folk art, and British and American furniture, fitted the mood of Sweden between wars.Scandinavian Design Auction and Josef Frank: The Essence of Scandinavian Modernism will take place on February 17, at 6pm, at Piasa offices in Paris.
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