Bruno Mathsson
Sweden
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Bruno Mathsson
All images © Fritz Hansen, all images © Fritz Hansen
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Series 7 and Model 3107, Product: 3107, table Finish: lacquer, whitet Designer: Arne Jacobsen , Piet Hein, Bruno Mathsson Year of design: 1955, 1968
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Series 7 and Superellipse, Series 7 in stained oak and Superellipse table in white model B413. Chair designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1955, stained oak introduced in 2005. Table designed in 1968 by Piet Hein.
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Model D717, Table, model D717 in walnut. Table designed by Piet Hein and Arne Jacobsen in 1968, with new top in 2007. Part of the Spring/Summer Collection 2007.
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Superellipse Table (1968), designed by Piet Hein, Bruno Mathsson, and Arne Jacobsen for Fritz Hansen
© Fritz Hansen
Bruno Mathsson was born in 1907 in Värnamo, Sweden. His father, Karl, was a fourth-generation master cabinetmaker, so Bruno was exposed early on to the possibilities of new wood technologies. A self-taught designer and architect, Mathsson was inspired by the functionalist movement, and, expanding on his family trade, spent much of the 1920s and 1930s studying the functional possibilities of wood.
Mathsson’s furniture designs experimented with curves and height, and were driven by ergonomics and function. He exhibited a collection of bentwood furniture at the 1937 World Exposition in Paris, launching his international reputation; his Eva Chair (then called Work Chair) was purchased for the public spaces of the soon-to-be-opened Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 1939, he exhibited at the New York World’s Fair, cementing his popularity in the U.S. In the 1950s, his attentions turned to architecture, and he often incorporated large glass pieces into his residential projects. In the 1960s, Mathsson again focused on furniture, and began working with tubular steel. Notably, he collaborated with Danish mathematician Piet Hein to create the Super Ellipse Table, which rested on span legs that made the tabletop appear to hover in space.