Paul Theodore Frankl

1886 – 1958

Born in Vienna, he was one of the first modernist designers working in America before 1925, drawing the foundations of the American tradition of modern decoration.

Paul Theodore Frankl, born in Vienna, together with his fellow Joseph Urban, was one of the pioneering European Modern designers working in America before 1925, who laid the foundations of the American tradition of modern decoration. Frankl left for America in 1914 and set up in business in New York. Although introducing himself as an architect, in 1922 he opened a gallery in the 48th Street, where he sold a variety of his designs for furniture, as well as modern textiles and wallpapers imported from Europe. His influence as a designer was compounded by his polemical pro-Modern publications: New Dimensions, Form and Re-Form, Machine Age Leisure, Spaces for Living, and Survey of American Textiles. In 1926 he introduced his celebrated skyscraper furniture, before turning to metal furnishings in the 1930s.

Suggested readings
Christopher Long and Aurora McClain, “Paul T. Frankl | Autobiography”, DoppelHouse Press, 2013, ISBN: 9780983254027