Functionalism, Swedish Grace and Swedish Modern
In the Nordic countries modernism got a more human face: more beautiful everyday goods for all, light homes, bent birch and Josef Frank's floral fabrics.
In Sweden modern design began with the Home Exhibition at Liljevalchs in 1917, where the Swedish Society of Crafts and Design showed cheap, well-made furniture for workers' homes. Two years later the art historian Gregor Paulsson published the pamphlet More Beautiful Everyday Things. Artists were hired by factories: Simon Gate and Edward Hald at Orrefors, Wilhelm Kåge at Gustavsberg. Their elegantly classical work was called Swedish Grace when it was shown in Paris in 1925.
The Stockholm Exhibition of 1930, led by Paulsson and with architecture by Gunnar Asplund, introduced functionalism – funkis – to the Swedish public. The following year its architects published the manifesto acceptera. Meanwhile in Finland Alvar and Aino Aalto bent birch veneer into chairs for the sanatorium in Paimio and founded Artek in 1935.
During the 1930s functionalism softened. Josef Frank, who moved from Vienna to Stockholm in 1933, designed furniture and fabrics with flowers and plants for Svenskt Tenn, in a mix he called accidentism. Bruno Mathsson shaped seating after the body. At the New York World's Fair in 1939 the Swedish style was called Swedish Modern.