A look few knew anything about until recently is coming to Chicago, and it may be the look everyone wants. Designers, decorators and collectors on the West Coast who thought they had seen it all are already wild about the sleek blond wood pieces that are Early Modernist Swedish furniture.
Andrew Wilder introduced the West Coast to the genre in April 2000 through Svenska Mobler (“Swedish Furniture”), his high-style Los Angeles showroom specializing in Swedish furnishings from the era spanning 1900 to 1940.
Wilder will give Chicagoans their first look at this heretofore overlooked area of the decorative arts during the 12th Annual Modernism Show, an exposition and sale of 20th Century design, Nov. 2 through 4 in Winnetka.
Few people outside Sweden have seen Swedish design of this era, says Wilder. Most people associate Scandinavian design with the starkly modern Danish-Swedish teakwood look of the post-World War II era, exported in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. That’s not what this is.
Early Modernist style is rich-looking but restrained, has clean lines but is warm, has presence but is easy to get along with.
“This is the best possible time to have introduced this furniture,” says Wilder. “People are much more sophisticated about decorating these days–an eclectic mixing of
“This is the best possible time to have introduced this furniture,” says Wilder. “People are much more sophisticated about decorating these days–an eclectic mixing of styles is what they’re aiming for. But it takes an exceptional eye to skillfully mix Traditional and Modern, and this is where this furniture really comes into its own. It is the perfect bridge between Traditional and Contemporary.”
And that’s his market, he says–the person mak “This is the best possible time to have introduced this furniture,” says Wilder. “People are much more sophisticated about decorating these days–an eclectic mixing of styles is what they’re aiming for. But it takes an exceptional eye to skillfully mix Traditional and Modern, and this is where this furniture really comes into its own. It is the perfect bridge between Traditional and Contemporary.”
And that’s his market, he says–the person making a bridge between styles.
Early Modernist “is not antiquey looking and not fussy because the lines are beautiful,” he says. “There’s so many people that have been through stark Modernbefore and find it too cold. This is a warm middle ground.” The result also is at home in eclectic settings, and Chicago, he adds suggestively, “is all about eclecticism.”
Alex Jordan of Gregga Jordan Smieszny, an interior design firm here, has placed a number of Wilder’s Swedish Modernist pieces in his clients’ interiors.
“We’ve used them in Modernist rooms in conjunction with contemporary upholstery, and Chinese and Japanese antiques,” says Jordan. “Whether the pieces are Biedermeier Revival or the Swedish Modernist pieces, they’ve very compatible with a lot of different cultures and styles.”
The Swedish Modernist look is distinguished by elegance, craftsmanship and the use of the indigenous woods of Sweden–especially golden flame birch. “When you see a high yellow color, it is generally birch,” says Wilder. Elm root and alder woods also are found, with rosewood and zebrawood as accents.
Look closely at the pieces, and you see craftsmanship that couldn’t be reproduced today. The tables and dressers reveal skillful use of wood finishes. Some pieces have exquisite inlay and marquetry. Chests are made so cunningly that hardware is almost or entirely absent.
“The Swedes are masterful woodworkers, and this furniture is as fine as anything produced anywhere,” says Wilder. “The reason people don’t know about it is because it wasn’t made for export. It was made by hand for a domestic market, for people who were investing in furniture they expected to own for life.”
Wilder believes it is important to know that Early Swedish Modernism furnishings are drawn from the six decorative styles dominating this era:
– The most important one he is working with is Swedish Functionalism, born out of the Stockholm Exhibition held in 1930. This is when Swedish furniture came into its own, says Wilder. “This is the root of Scandinavian Modern in its extreme linearity–Cubist-inspired shapes–and lack of embellishment.”
– Jugendstil (“young style”), or Swedish Art Nouveau, is another decorative style, characterized by organic shapes executed with the traditional Swedish light hand, using very good quality cherry and mahogany woods, often with copper inlay.
– The international movement of Art Deco was characterized in Sweden by use of blond woods and certain architectural forms.
– As for 1930s Classicism, it was probably the most elegant of these design movements, he says, as it combined elements of Functionalism and Art Deco while employing classical inlay and detailing.
– The 1930s Neo-Gothic was often rendered with highly carved detailing.
– Finally, Swedish Grace was a turn-of-the-century style based on sensual curves, employing architectural detailing.
“This furniture is such a breath of fresh air,” says Wilder. “The most amazing thing about it is not only its beauty, but its scarcity.
“One has to keep in mind that, at the time these pieces were produced, the entire population of Sweden totaled 5 million. It was never mass-produced. It’s a rare commodity with great investment potential.”
Well-kept secret
Wilder, at age 37, is probably the foremost American authority on Swedish design of this era.
“There is very little documentation of the furniture of this era,” he says. “Everything was made in small factories. A lot of pieces were destroyed. A few can still be found in homes.” Few names of designers are known, other than Carl Malmsten and Axel Einer Hjorth.
Malmsten was one of the greatest Swedish furniture designers, says Kerstin Wickman, professor of design history at Konstfack, the University of Art, Crafts and Design in Stockholm, and author and editor of numerous books on Swedish glass and furniture. Hjorth was another major figure.
Both men worked a lot with intarsia, or pictorial inlay. “In the 1940s and 1950s,” says Wickman, “everybody with some sort of taste bought Malmsten.” He was a functionalist, she adds, whose design ideology was that “everybody should be comfortable.”
Though Malmsten’s designs were relatively inexpensive and much sought after by the middle-class, he made some very exclusive furniture as well, she says. “I wouldn’t say there is a lot left in Sweden, and it is not easy to find.”
What Wilder has gathered he will share in his booth lecture at the Modernism Show, “On the Cusp: Swedish Modernism Before the War.”
Despite the dearth of information, “I’m in love with this design aesthetic,” says Wilder. He always has been fascinated by the forms of that era. “They were really beautiful and unique to me.”
He discovered and began collecting them when he moved to Stockholm to run an independent record label in the early ’80s, right out of high school.
Later he returned to his native New York to create his own fashion textile design company. He continued to make many trips to Sweden to expand his knowledge and collection, ransacking “obscure stores.”
Every piece he brought back for himself was raved over by friends, leading him to believe he could convert a personal passion into a livelihood.
After moving to Portland in the late ’90s, he began small-scale importation, working up a network of adept dealers. It was not easy because “nobody had ever gone to Sweden before looking for this genre of furniture,” he says. Initially he sold by appointment out of his Portland home but later decided he needed a larger market in which to expand his vision.
He headed for Los Angeles, where celebrity collectors–such as actress Kirsten Dunst and Joel Silver, producer of the “Lethal Weapon” series and two “Die Hard” movies, as well as photographers, architects and other aesthetically savvy types–quickly glommed onto the style.
Antonio da Motta, a designer at the prestigious Studio Sofield in Los Angeles, has used pieces from Wilder’s collection extensively in clients’ houses. He has found them to be “a very refreshing slice of European Art Deco that is not easily found in Los Angeles. … They cover everything from Biedermeier to Midcentury, but there is continuity in the aesthetic.”
Asked if he has early Swedish Modernist in his own home, Wilder says, “I certainly do. It is so nice to live with. These are great pieces to mix in an eclectic design scheme. They don’t call too much attention to themselves. They’re really beautiful, without being too specific or stylized. I’ve seen clients use this in so many different kinds of settings, really the gamut.”
Svenska Mobler is at 154 N. LaBrea Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90036. Call 323-934-4452 or visit www.svenskamobler.com.
Modernism Show
What: The 12th Annual Modernism Show, An Exposition & Sale of 20th Century Design, 1890-1970. Top-quality examples in furniture, paintings, prints, photographs, jewelry, metalwork, pottery, textiles, clothing and other decorative arts from important periods of design such as Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, Prairie School, Art Deco, Art Moderne and `50s will be offered for sale by more than 50 dealers from the U.S., Canada, and England.
Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 3 and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 4 (the hours and dates as published have been corrected in this text).
Preview party: 6 to 9 p.m. Nov. 2, includes early buying privileges, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Cost: $60 per person in advance, $70 at the door (includes two-day show admission).
Cost: $10 per person for two-day admission, $5 two-day admission for students with photo ID. Tickets are available for sale at the Winnetka Community House, 620 Lincoln Ave., Winnetka.
Lectures: Booth lectures are free and will be held Nov. 3 and 4, times to be announced.
For info: Call 847-446-0537 or visit the Web site at winnetkacommunityhouse.org
— Mary Daniels
