- Artist or Maker
- Paul T. Frankl
Austria, active United States, New York and California, Los Angeles, 1886-1958 - Title
- Chair
- Date Made
- circa 1936; manufactured in Manila 1936-1939
- Medium
- Rattan
- Dimensions
- 31 x 31 x 36 in. (78.74 x 78.74 x 91.44 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2012.87
- Collecting Area
- Decorative Arts and Design
- Curatorial Notes
Responding to California’s benign climate and the proximity to Asia, Viennese émigré Paul Frankl developed a line of rattan furniture made in the Philippines, which he sold in his Los Angeles shop. Both flexible and strong, rattan was ideally suited for California indoor/outdoor furnishings, especially after being treated with beeswax to protect the surface. Frankl’s innovative use of the material, especially the “pretzel-shaped” arms of his chairs, became a design sensation and was widely imitated.
(California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way," 2011-12)
- Selected Bibliography
- Kaplan, Wendy, ed. California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2011.
- Kaplan, Wendy, ed. Living in a Modern Way: California Design, 1930-1965. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2013.
- Selected Exhibition History
- California Design, 1930–1965: "Living in a Modern Way". October 1, 2011 - June 3, 2012
