Self portrait
Traces of signature under the frame. Executed circa 1927. Panel 26 x 19 cm.
The family of the artist.
Private collection, Denmark.
Björn Trägårdh är idag mest uppmärksammad för sina exklusiva, strama funkismöbler och tennföremål, som han formgav för Svenskt Tenn, där han var konstnärlig rådgivare och ledande formgivare 1927-34.
Liksom de flesta formgivare under det tidiga 1900-talet var han verksam inom flera olika områden som formgivning och måleri. Björn Trägårdh kom så småningom att överge möbelformgivningen och bosätta sig i Frankrike för att helt ägna sig åt måleriet.
Auktionens målning är ett mycket sällsynt verk från hans tidiga period i slutet av 1920-talet.
Björn Trägårdh (1908-1998) was an artist, furniture designer, draftsman, and graphic artist. He worked as a designer at Svenskt Tenn from 1928 to 1936, where he designed furniture, pewter objects, and other art industry products. Trägårdh joined Svenskt Tenn when he was only 20 years old and was influenced by a functionalist design approach. He worked with a restrained color palette, using black, white, and gray as his main colors. Additionally, he and Estrid Ericson were exhibition organizers for several notable exhibitions. After Josef Frank joined Svenskt Tenn, Trägårdh moved to Paris in 1939, where he worked as a visual artist. During and after the war, he returned to the field of crafts and the fashion industry, creating buttons and brooches for fashion houses such as Dior, Bruyère, and Schiaparelli. Trägårdh's work can be found in the collections of the National Museum in Stockholm, the Gothenburg Museum of Art, the Institut Tessin in Paris, as well as art museums in Tours and Pau, France.
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