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{{Short description|Swedish furniture designer and architect}}
[[Image:Bruno Mathsson, 1960-tal.jpg|thumb|Bruno Mathsson]]
'''Bruno Mathsson''' (13 January 1907{{spnd}}17 August 1988) was a Swedish architect and furniture designer whose ideas aligned with functionalism, [[modernism]], as well as the Swedish crafts tradition.<ref name="Widman">{{cite book|last1=Widman|first1=Dag|last2=Winter|first2=Karin|last3=Stritzler-Levine|first3=Nina|title=Bruno Mathsson: architect and designer|date=2006|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven and London|isbn=9780300121919}}</ref>

== Biography ==
[[Image:Mathson 1950.jpg|thumb|Bruno Mathsson in 1950]]
Mathsson was raised in the town of [[Värnamo]] in the [[Småland]] region of [[Sweden]], the son of a master cabinet maker.<ref name="About">{{cite web
| url = http://www.mathsson.se/en/about-bruno-mathsson-en
| title = About Bruno Mathsson
| publisher = Bruno Mathsson International AB
| access-date = 2019-04-20
| archive-date = 2020-08-08
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200808175942/http://mathsson.se/en/about-bruno-mathsson-en
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> After a short time of education in school, he started to work in his father's gallery. He soon found a great interest in furniture and especially chairs, their function and design. In the 1920s and 30s he developed a techniques for building [[bentwood]] chairs with hemp webbing. The first model, called the Grasshopper, was used at Värnamo Hospital in 1931.<ref name="Bard">{{cite web
| url = https://www.bgc.bard.edu/gallery/exhibitions/32/bruno-mathsson
| title = Bruno Mathsson: Architect and Designer, Past Exhibition, March 22 – June 10, 2007
| publisher = Bard Graduate Center
}}</ref>

[[Edgar Kaufmann Jr.]], director of the Industrial Design Department at the [[Museum of Modern Art]] (MOMA), collected Mathsson's chairs and included them in several exhibitions in the 1940s.<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.moma.org/artists/3830
| title = Bruno Mathsson
| publisher = Museum of Modern Art
}}</ref> Kaufmann considered Mathsson's importance in furniture design on par with that of [[Alvar Aalto]].<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.moma.org/documents/moma_catalogue_3204_300090419.pdf
| title = Modern rooms of the last fifty years
| last = Kaufmann Jr.
| first = Edgar
| date = 1947
| publisher = Museum of Modern Art
}}</ref> Kaufmann and his family also had a Mathsson chair at their house [[Fallingwater]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://fallingwater.org/history/preservationcollections/collection-highlights/|title = The Fallingwater Collection}}</ref>

Mathsson was also an accomplished architect; he completed about 100 structures in the 1940s and 50s.<ref name="Christiansson">{{cite journal
| last = Christiansson
| first = Carl E.
| title = Bruno Mathsson: Furniture/Structures/Ideas
| journal = Design Quarterly
| volume = 65
| issue =65
| pages = 1–2, 5–31
| date = 1966
| jstor = 4047313
| doi =10.2307/4047313
}}</ref> He was the first architect in Sweden to build all-glass structures with heated floors. His furniture showroom in Värnamo (1950) was a significant example; it is well-preserved and open to the public today. For his glass houses, he developed double- and triple-pane insulated glass units called "Bruno-Pane".<ref>{{cite journal
| last1 = Kiss
| first1 = Bernadett
| last2 = Neij
| first2 = Lena
| title = The importance of learning when supporting emergent technologies for energy efficiency: A case study on policy intervention for learning for the development of energy efficient windows in Sweden
| journal = Energy Policy
| volume = 39
| issue =10
| pages = 6514–6524
| date = 2011
| doi = 10.1016/j.enpol.2011.07.053
| bibcode = 2011EnPol..39.6514K
}}</ref>

He traveled extensively in the United States and was strongly influenced by the solar houses of [[George Fred Keck]]. Mathsson's architecture was also influenced by a visit to the [[Eames House]] by [[Charles and Ray Eames]] in March 1949 just as it was being completed.<ref name="Widman"/>

== Works ==
[[Image:Eva och Mina.jpg|thumb|Mathsson's Eva and Mina chairs]]

=== Furniture ===
* Grasshopper (1931)
* Mimat (1932)
* Pernilla (1934)
* The Eva Chair (1935)
* Folding table (1935)
* Paris Daybed (1937)
* Swivel chair (1939-1940)
* Pernilla Lounge
* Jetson Chair
* Super-Ellipse™ table series, with [[Piet Hein (scientist)|Piet Hein]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Design of the 20th Century|first1=Charlotte|last1=Fiell|first2=Peter|last2=Fiell|publisher=Taschen|location=Köln|edition=25th anniversary|year=2005|page=455|isbn=9783822840788|oclc=809539744}}</ref> (1966)
* Annika nesting tables (1968)
* The Karin chair (1969)<ref>{{cite web |title=Bruno Mathsson |url=https://www.duxiana.co.uk/en/partners/designers/bruno-mathsson |website=Duxiana |access-date=2 May 2024}}</ref>
* Milton Swivel chair (1975)

===Architecture===
[[Image:Bruno_Mathsson_showroom_Värnamo.jpg|thumb|Bruno Mathsson furniture showroom, Värnamo (1950)]]
[[Image:Kosta glashus, 2018d.jpg|thumb|{{Ill|Kosta glashus|lt=''Kosta Glashus''|sv}}, [[Kosta Boda|Kosta Glassworks]] (1956)]]
* Bruno Mathsson furniture showroom, Värnamo (1950)
* house at Danderyd (1955)
* [[:sv:Villa Prenker|Villa Prenker]], Kungsör (1955)
* [[Kosta Boda|Kosta Glassworks]] exhibition hall and worker's residences ({{Ill|Kosta glashus|lt=''Kosta Glashus''|sv}}), Kosta (1956)
* weekend cottage at Frösakull (1960)
**"one of the most daring examples of his glass houses."<ref name="Bard"/>
* Södrakull, outside Värnamo (1965)<ref>{{cite web
| url = https://www.dwell.com/article/swedish-designer-bruno-mathssons-home-is-a-perfect-midcentury-time-capsule-d3aad753
| title = Swedish Designer Bruno Mathsson's Home Is a Perfect Midcentury Time Capsule
| last = Xie
| first = Jenny
| date = December 5, 2017
| publisher = Dwell magazine
}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}
==External links==
{{Commons}}
* {{Official site}}
* {{Digitaltmuseum}}
* ''[https://www.bgc.bard.edu/exhibitions/exhibitions/32/bruno-mathsson Bruno Mathsson: Architect and Designer]'' 2007 exhibition at [[Bard Graduate Center]]

{{Authority control (arts)|country=SV}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mathsson, Bruno}}
[[Category:1907 births]]
[[Category:1988 deaths]]
[[Category:Swedish furniture designers]]
[[Category:20th-century Swedish architects]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal]]
[[Category:People from Värnamo]]

Bruno Mathsson - Revision history

imported>Citation bot: Added bibcode. Removed parameters. | Use this bot. Report bugs. | Suggested by CorrectionsJackal | Category:Recipients of the Prince Eugen Medal | #UCB_Category 61/127