Paul T. Frankl

Paul T. Frankl (October 14, 1886 – March 21, 1958), an Art Deco furniture designer and maker, architect, painter and writer from Vienna, Austria, was the son of a wealthy real estate speculator.

Career

His solo art shows included New York City's Knoedler Gallery in 1931 and Los Angeles's Stendahl Gallery in 1944.

After he relocated to Los Angeles and opened a gallery on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, celebrities such as Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston and Alfred Hitchcock became clients.

Frankl wrote several books and magazine articles about the Modern Style and was its most vocal proponent. He established the American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen (AUDAC) in 1928. He later designed production pieces for Brown Saltman of California and Johnson Furniture Company of Grand Rapids, incorporating an early use of biomorphic designs and novel materials such as cork veneer. His style continuously evolved, from early skyscraper furniture to relaxed and casual designs favored by the Hollywood elite in the 1930s to manufactured pieces for the mass market in the 1950s. In 1934 he moved to Los Angeles where he taught at the University of Southern California and the Chouinard Art Institute. Used, out-of-print books he authored sell for hundreds of dollars in online bookstores.

His daughter, Paulette Frankl, is an artist, author and photographer, and his grandson, Nicholas Koenig, is a creative director for theme parks and interactive games.

Books New Dimensions: the Decorative Arts of Today in Words and Pictures, 1928. Form and Re-form: A Practical Handbook of Modern Interiors, 1930 (reprint 1975). Machine-made leisure, 1932. Space for living: Creative interior decoration and design, 1938. Principios fundamentales de la historia de la arquitectura, Leipzig y Berlín, 1914.

Collections Brooklyn museum of art. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Art Institute of Chicago. Milwaukee Art Museum. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Grand Rapids Art Museum.