Inspiration
2022/1/31
The new colours of Karin
When Bruno Mathsson named his furniture creation after his wife, she became part of Swedish furniture design history. Now the almost 50-year-old classic Karin 73 armchair is entering the 2020s in two new colours.
Bruno Mathsson met his future wife Karin Swärd in the 1940s and in 1969 he designed the first piece of furniture dedicated to her. The Karin armchair quickly became a classic and four years later the sequel Karin 73 was launched.
Fast forward almost half a century and Nordiska Galleriet and DUX invite Bruno Mathsson's furniture to a new millennium. Inspired by Karin 73's ability to move between generations, the timeless design of the armchair is brought together with today's pulse and dressed in two new colours. The armchair is sold exclusively at Nordiska Galleriet in a limited edition in green and purple with ten numbered copies per colour.
The design has not been changed. Deep stapling in the back and seat gives it a retro-inspired look. It also has legs with wheels that make it easy to place and move.
”Det ultimata sittandet är en konst, vilket det inte bör vara.”
Bruno Mathsson was a designer, artist and architect - a constantly evolving innovator. He is considered the designer who has had the greatest impact on modern Swedish furniture design. Mathsson grew up in Värnamo as an apprentice carpenter in a family with several generations of carpenters. At the same time, he was fascinated by the possibilities of developing the function and form of furniture, and driven by the ideas of functionalism, he began to study on his own. In 1929 he was given access to the books and journals of the Röhsska Konstslöjdmuseum and soon boxes of books were sent by train between Värnamo and Gothenburg.
In an attempt to test his theories, Bruno Mathsson was given the opportunity to design a chair for the hospital in Värnamo in 1931. However, the staff found the chair so ugly that they put it away in the attic - only to bring it out again after Mathsson's breakthrough.
He made his international breakthrough in 1937 at the Paris Expo World Exhibition, followed by a nearly 50-year career recognised around the world. Multi-awarded, Bruno Mathsson has exhibited in museums and exhibitions from the US to Japan.
"The ultimate seating is an art, which it should not be. Instead, seating furniture should be made with such art that sitting in it is not an art', Bruno Mathsson is reported to have said. Perhaps it was also thanks to his ability to never stop exploring the design and function of furniture that he achieved the feat of being both in tune with the times and ahead of them at the same time.
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