I have been a fan of Josef Frank’s colourful and modern textiles for some time now, so was very excited when I heard that the Fashion and Textile museum was putting on an exhibition of his work.
The exhibition didn’t disappoint and I was very glad that I attended one of the complimentary curator led tours (Wednesdays and Fridays at 1pm) as although I was fairly familiar with some of Josef Frank’s prints, I didn’t really know much about the man himself. Born in 1885, he came to textile design in his late forties, after a successful career as an architect in his native Austria. He moved to Sweden in 1933, due to growing antisemitism and the rise of Nazism. Unable to find work as an architect, he turned his hand to textile design, working with Estrid Ericson (and her company Svenskt Tenn), in a partnership that lasted nearly 30 years. And many of his designs can still be bought from Svenskt Tenn today.
His work is still so incredibly fresh and modern, some prints look as though they were designed yesterday, which is testament to the influence that he has had on the Textile industry.
