January 13 2007 is the centenary of Bruno Mathsson birth in Värnamo, Sweden and it was in his father's workshop in Värnamo, that he was to develop his unique style, producing a timeless collection of light, elegant yet resilient furniture. He explored the possibilities of bent laminated wood and steel tube to create furniture that gained him the reputation of being one of the world's foremost designers of the 20 Century.

Bruno Mathsson held the first exhibition of his designs in 1936 at the Röhsska Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. A year later in 1937 Mathsson was to breakthrough onto the international stage after exhibiting at the world exhibition in Paris where the curator at Museum of Modern Art, Edgar Kaufmann Jnr, provided him with the opportunity to exhibit his furniture in New York.

2007 also marks the 70th year since he began his International career as a designer and 40 years since stepped into the jet era at an exhibition in Malmö, Sweden, with his famous easy chair Jetson.
The centenary is being celebrated with a retrospective exhibition that follows in Bruno Mathsson’s footsteps which was launched at the Architectural Museum in Stockholm in February 2006. Between September and October 2006 the exhibition was staged at the Centre Culturel Suedois in Paris and this year at the Form Design Centre in Malmö, until January 14.

The exhibition now moves to New York, where it will open at Bard Graduate Centre on March 21, 2007 to be shown during the spring. The exhibition has been and praised by the media and enthusiastically received by the public with over 200 000 visitors to date.

In August 2006, a new book about Bruno Mathsson was published written by Dag Widman, former curator at the National Museum, Karin Winter, former curator at the Architectural Museum and the curator at Bard Graduate Centre in New York. Nina Stritzler Lewin has also written a book published in a Swedish with an international perspective about Bruno Mathsson, his furniture and his architecture.

To celebrate the centennial Bruno Mathsson International AB is faithfully re-introducing to its original specification the daybed Paris. This model contributed to Bruno Mathsson’s International breakthrough as a designer and has an interesting history

As a young man Bruno embraced a lifestyle rooted in the tradition of physical culture. This contained not only exercise and outdoor living, but also the benefit of letting the body rest for a while in the middle of the day. With this in mind Bruno Mathsson created this light, resilient and at the time, award winning design. Mathsson’s design has inbuilt elasticity through his use of a frame of bent laminated wood and supporting element of plaited webbing. This characteristic combined with the raised head support gives the body excellent support while at rest. In the design of Paris, Bruno Mathsson pursued his interest in using bent laminated wood and plated webbing. As with his chairs he used minimal upholstery using the form to achieve good support and comfort.

Dagbädden fanns med redan i Bruno Mathssons debututställning som formgivare på Röhsska museet i Göteborg 1936. Den hade också sin självklara plats i hans monter på världsutställningen i Paris 1937. Bruno Mathsson och hans böjträmöbler rönte stor uppmärksamhet i Paris. Här fick han också sitt internationella genombrott. Det franska handels- och industriministeriet hedrade Bruno Mathsson för hans nyskapande formgivning med ett Diplome Commémoratif. Dagbädden fick efter detta namnet Paris.

The daybed was first displayed at his de´but exhibition in 1936 and was also given prominence the following year on his stand at the 1937 world exhibition in Paris.

Bruno Mathsson and his bent laminated furniture attracted interest from an international audience at the world exhibition. The French ministry for trade and industry honoured Bruno Mathsson for his innovative designs with a Diplome Commémoratif and the daybed became known simply as Paris.

Bruno Mathsson (1907-1988) developed modernism in furniture design and architecture, addressing both general and special problems in the design of furniture, interiors and buildings. The furniture designer is well known, but the architect will be a new acquaintance to most people.

Iit is 70 years since Bruno Mathsson had his first separate exhibition at the RoehssMuseum of Design and Crafts in Gothenburg (Göteborg). Mathsson´s furniture caught both European and American eyes followingits international breakthrough at the 1937 International Exposition in Paris. One of the first commissions came from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which needed furniture for the public rooms in its new extension.

Bruno Mathsson's living room

He always viewed his individual furniture designs in a broader context – that of interaction with the room and with architecture. The living room of his own weekend cottage at Frösakull – shown in the exhibition as a full-scale model – is a précis of his ideas onhousing and furnishing.

The Young Designer

As a designer and architect he was self-taught, in that his learning and ideas came from books and periodicals. The links between design and nature – ergonomic solutions, spatial thinking and architecture – were self-evident.

Photo: Bruno Mathsson International.

The Glass Houses

In 1948 Bruno Mathsson and his wife Karin Mathsson made a journey to USA where they met many of the architects and designers he had read about: Frank Lloyd Right, Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Charles and Ray Eames amongst others.

Bruno Matssons weekend cottage at Frösakull.
Photo: Bruno Mathsson International.

International and, in particular, American discussion of housing during the 1930s and 1940s inspired Bruno Mathsson to address the conditions of future living. Bruno Mathsson designed a large number of single-family dwellings, terrace houses, schools, crèches, factories and exhibition galleries. His theme was brightly lit, airy structures with large expanses of glazing, built to a rational modular system. Some 50 houses of his were built in Sweden and abroad.

House in Kungsör, Sweden by Bruno Mathsson, 1954.
Photo: Arne Persson, Arkitekturmuseet.

Scandinavian Design

The interest for Bruno Mathsson´s design was renewd due to his succes at the exhbition Interbau in Berlin 1957. In the 60:s Bruno Mathsson created the chairs "Jetson", "Karin"; "Ingrid", the bed "Ulla" and, together with Piet Hein, the superellips table.

Cooperation
In cooperation with Karin and Bruno Mathsson's fund.

Idea
Hedvig Hedqvist, Karin and Bruno Mathsson´s fund.
Karin Åberg Waern, Arkitekturmuseet.

Exhibition Architects
Björn Dahlström
Anna von Schewen.